Omninihil
by Magic Gerbil
Summary: One is a creature of intense morality marred by bitterness and envy. The second is torn between selfishness and nobility, and the third is a shy explosion waiting to happen. Two years after Harry graduates, these three seemingly ordinary kids are Sorted
1. Swans on Magpie Lane

Omninihil  
  
Odelia dreamed that she was in a meadow of blue-green grass. A trio of magnificent ebony swans sailed through the peaceful sky. As they winged their way across the expanse of blue, they declared in surprisingly human voices, "Hogwarts letters! Hogwarts letters! Hogwarts letters!" With each exclamation a flower sprouted from the ground, forming a ring of color around Odelia. "Hogwarts letters! Hogwarts letters!"  
  
"Hogwarts letters!" Odelia slid out of slumber to realize that her waking ears heard the same phrase. The young witch hurtled out of bed and stumbled down the stairs of her home - nine eight seven six five four three two one - to find, far from black swans, her parents and sister, with a tawny owl hovering nearby. The three humans were clustered around the round stone table, poring over the contents of an envelope. An identical envelope rested, unopened, near Odelia's father's left arm. Odelia lunged toward the table to snatch at the latter envelope.  
  
"What, no good morning?" her father teased. "Or do they not say that in the Roman Empire?" He gestured to the sheet that was still tangled, toga-like, around Odelia's scrawny form. Odelia tossed aside the envelope addressed to "Odelia Delwin, The Western Room, 37 Magpie Lane" and sorted through the standard acceptance form and list of supplies to grasp a smaller piece of parchment. Bright hazel eyes scanned the spidery writing with the easy movement of a speed-reader. Odelia suddenly grinned and punched the air in triumph, still holding the piece of parchment.  
  
"Yes! Aura can come if she stays with the gamekeeper!" The note fluttered out of Odelia's hand as she dashed toward a catlike creature sitting by the fireplace, leaving her mother to retrieve the papers. "D'you hear that, Aura? You can come to Hogwarts with me!" The child's small hand moved instinctively to the spot between her pet's big ears. Aura, a reddish Kneazle, purred and twitched her whiskers.  
  
"Aren't you even going to read the letter?" inquired the older girl seated at the table. Odette had the same hazel eyes and dark-with-hints-of-red hair as her younger sister, though her skin was rosier and her features less elfin. Odelia shrugged in disinterest, her cheek resting against Aura's back. She had shed the sheet somewhere on the floor, adding to the comfortable messiness of the room. Lulled by Aura's rhythmic purring, Odelia closed her eyes and sighed sleepily.  
  
"Oh, no you don't!" Mrs. Delwin stood commandingly over Odelia and Aura. "Breakfast." Odelia grumbled and allowed herself to be led to the table; she had learned after eleven years that when it came to breakfast, resistance was futile.  
  
"Sign my permission slip for Hogsmeade?" Odette asked her father. He nodded amiably and scrawled his signature on the slip, smiling fondly at his eldest child. Odelia gazed moodily at their cereal; her parents were always so proud of their swan princess. Mrs. Delwin had long ago told her daughters the story of the ballet that had inspired their names: Odette was the beautiful princess transformed into a swan; Odile (a form of Odelia) was the evil magician's daughter and accomplice. They might as well have given us shirts saying 'Favorite' and 'Reject,' Odelia mused bitterly.  
  
"What's wrong, dear? Why aren't you eating?" Odelia didn't reply to her mother's query but spooned cereal into her mouth absently. "We'll have to go buy your textbooks from Diagon Alley," Mara Delwin continued, reaching into her pocket for her notorious List.  
  
Odelia shook her head, sending dark hair flying. "I can just use Odette's old ones, and I already have a wand." Unlike most wizarding children, who bought their wands just before beginning their magical education, Odette and Odelia owned wands that had been in the family for several generations.  
  
Mara, an authoritative-looking witch whose dark scowls had been known to quell several unruly subordinates, raised a thin eyebrow. "Are you sure? They're probably quite shabby." Odelia gave another indifferent shrug, finishing the last of her cereal. In her opinion, shabby books were comforting signs that storms could be weathered. Mrs. Delwin pursed her lips, gazing contemplatively at her second child. "I just don't understand why you never want to buy new things." Before Odelia had the obligatory chance to explain, which she seldom used, her mother added "Well, Odette needs new things, so we'll be going anyway."  
  
Odelia sighed and stood, shoving her chair away from the table despite its groans of protest. She grabbed her empty bowl in one hand, pushed the chair back into position with the other and offered her spare arm to the owl that had brought the Hogwarts letter. After putting her bowl in the sink, she headed out the door.  
  
"Where are you going?" chorused Mr. and Mrs. Delwin.  
  
"Feeding the owls," Odelia called, letting the door swing shut behind her and her passenger. A brief grin crossed her face as she heard her mother complain about young witches who had the temerity to go outside in their nightgowns.  
  
A few steps brought Odelia to her home's small Owlery. She slipped through the door into the dim, quiet space that housed the family's three owls. "Good morning Sherwin, Ashwin, Darwin," she greeted them in a hushed voice, setting the guest owl onto a spare perch. With practiced hands she measured out food for each of them, including the guest. "Feel free to go back to Hogwarts when you're done," she told the last one. "Safe journey."  
  
"Odelia!" Odelia would have recognized her father's half-yodeling call anywhere. After waving quickly to the owls she started back for the house. "Come here and get some proper clothes on!" The voice was her father's, but Odelia was sure that the command had come from Mrs. Delwin. A family friend had once commented that Mara Delwin "wore the pants in the family" and Odelia knew it to be true. Barely pausing to notify her parents that she was back, Odelia galloped up the stairs - one two three four five six seven eight nine - and prepared herself for the day.  
  
---  
  
Aura entered Odelia's room half an hour later to find its occupant perched in front of the large oval mirror on the side of the room opposite the window. A habit that began when she was under the Pinocchius Charm, Odelia examined her face in the mirror each day to make sure that it hadn't changed overnight. Aura wound herself around Odelia's feet, shedding liberally.  
  
Odelia's reflection was the same as usual. At age eleven, her face still had the normal roundness of childhood, though not in excess. Smooth, sallow skin interrupted by the occasional birthmark stretched across this face, darkening at the lips that were more mobile than wide. Large hazel eyes with a slight slant to them and a sparkle that spoke of an intense nature, wide-set and framed by the expressive eyebrows that were a legacy of Mrs. Delwin. A few golden freckles smattered themselves over the tiny, almost-tilted nose. High-set ears and a pointed chin gave Odelia an elfin appearance, adding surprising strength to such a young face. Finally, black-brown hair with hints of red hung like curtains around the back of the girl's head. A few strands were tucked firmly behind her ears but managed to stick out like tiny wings. Odelia stared into herself, four pools of brown-brackish water, green algae and glints of golden sunlight, childlike innocence mixed with bitter wisdom.  
  
"Considering an anti-freckle charm then?" questioned the mirror, which had a frame of blue stained glass. Its indolent voice continued, like water rolling over stones. "And then perhaps you could charm a bit of pink into those cheeks, more like your sister's."  
  
Odelia's serenity shattered into red-hot crystals of pain. Her fists clenched and she glared, but what could she do to a mirror? "I like my face just the way it is," she whispered in a voice trembling with rage. "I like myself just the way I am. Talk about changing me again and you're out of this room for good." Aura rubbed her head against Odelia's ankle soothingly. Breaking the bond between herself and her mirror-self, Odelia crouched next to her pet, twining thin fingers in warm fur.  
  
"Some people," sniffed the mirror, but it was experienced enough to sniff softly.  
---  
  
"May I go into Flourish and Blott's while you buy Odette's supplies?" Odelia requested, speaking loudly to be heard above the bustle of Diagon Alley. Mr. Delwin gave a thumbs-up as Mrs. Delwin consulted the List, a scroll of parchment, which was clinging to her wand. Odelia wove her way through the crowd, taking the quickest possible route to the bookshop. Dodge the flying stroller, duck the owl pellet, hop over the puddle, and - safe at last - Flourish and Blott's.  
  
There she performed her familiar ritual: look at each book in the window and guess what it's about. Look at each person and guess what he or she is doing. Some of these were no-brainers; Quidditch Through the Ages was obviously about Quidditch, and the bookseller was, of course, selling books. The young people gathered around the front of the store were likely Hogwarts students, and the curly-haired man singing about an octopus's garden had to be the parent of a Muggle-born student.  
  
"I just got my wand," a tall boy declared. "It's oak with phoenix feather, just like my father's."  
  
"Mine's maple with a unicorn hair - it was so long they had to fold it in half!" The girl who owned this wand had a note of pride in her voice.  
  
Odelia thought of her own wand in a velvet-lined case at 37 Magpie Lane. It had belonged to her great-aunt, a delicate-looking woman with a will of steel. Odelia was reminded of Aunt Miranda each time she ran a finger across the smooth, silvery surface of tapering white pine or inhaled its invigorating scent. Nobody knew what was inside the wand; it hadn't been crafted by Ollivander but by a Ukrainian wandmaker. The base was certainly heavier than the top; Odelia was of the opinion that it contained magical seeds or jewels.  
  
"Hey, kid, are you going in or just blocking the way?"  
  
Odelia whirled to face an older girl in a green cloak, hand on hip, waves of auburn hair cascading down her back. With knee-high boots and a gold chain circling her forehead, all she needed was a sword to look like something out of Tolkien (Crandall Delwin encouraged his children to read Muggle books). Then again, due to the impatient look on her face, this was not someone Odelia wanted to arm.  
  
"Sorry. I'll move." Odelia scrambled aside with a polite nod, ingrained by years of etiquette training. The cloaked girl looked amused and entered the bookshop, heading for what appeared to be the history section. Probably checking out How to Be Medieval In A Week, thought Odelia without malice. She let out a wide but quiet yawn and ran her eyes over the crowd. No sign of the Delwin entourage; Odelia took advantage of the opportunity to duck into the bookshop.  
  
Once inside, she took a deep breath and her stiff-as-a-ramrod posture, another result of her parents' instruction, relaxed slightly. Places full of books always had that effect on the youngest Delwin. With a slight smile, she ambled over to the magical creatures section. Her eyes sparkled as she spotted a book full of pictures of dragons in their natural habitats. Lifting the hardcover with a small grunt, she moved to a sunlit corner and proceeded to gaze into the eyes of a Romanian Longhorn, which snorted a slight puff of smoke at her.  
  
Several amazing dragons later, Odelia felt a tap on her shoulder. She tilted her head upward to see the smiling face of Odette. Younger sister raised an eyebrow at the elder, who clarified "It's time to go. Are you going to buy that?" Odelia stroked the snout of a Welsh Green before shutting the book and nodding an affirmative. The sisters joined their parents at the checkout line, where Mara tapped the List with her wand to magically check off each item while Crandall browsed the bestsellers. Odelia handed The Splendor of Dragons to her father, eyes still locked on the Swedish Short-Snouts that soared across the cover.  
  
"Yes, Odette's a third year," Mrs. Delwin addressed another customer. "Hufflepuff's best Chaser already, or that's what the team captain says. Odelia is starting this year." Odelia wondered what her mother would say in two years. Odelia's a Ravenclaw; people say she'll be Head Girl. Odelia's a Slytherin; all of her teachers like her. Odelia's a Gryffindor; she's the best in the dueling club. Or Odelia's a Hufflepuff too. Mr. Delwin finished paying for Odelia's book and Mrs. Delwin signaled for the List to curl around her wand. "Let's go, girls; you want to get a good night's rest for the train ride tomorrow." Yes, thought Odelia, that's the one thing I want most in the world.  
  
---  



	2. To Hogwarts We Go

Omninihil, Chapter 2 - To Hogwarts We Go  
  
Platform 9 and 3/4 was crowded and bustling as usual. Odelia felt a strange sinking feeling in her stomach as she stood, shoulders back and spine straight, decked out in her black school robes ("Change on the train? Someone could see me!") beside her parents. She had made the trip to the platform regularly for the last two years, waving as the train bore Odette to far-off adventures. Somehow it was quite different knowing that she, Odelia, would be borne off as well.  
  
"Owl us if there are any problems," instructed Mrs. Delwin.  
  
"Listen to what the teachers say," added Mr. Delwin.  
  
"Try to make friends."  
  
"Don't get into trouble."  
  
"Follow Odette's advice."  
  
For once it was Odelia, not Odette, who was getting the attention, but the uncomfortable feeling in Odelia's stomach prevented her from enjoying it. "I will," she replied automatically for the twenty-seventh time, feeling as if she were about to get married. Aura yowled, though the lurid fuchsia cat carrier in which she rode and which she despised above all else muffled the sound.  
  
"Mum," called Odette from where she stood with her group of friends, "The train's going to be leaving soon." The Delwin parents took this as a signal to hug Odelia tightly.  
  
"You'll be okay?" Mrs. Delwin queried anxiously before Odelia followed Odette into the train. Odelia could only nod jauntily with a confidence she didn't feel.   
  
Odette seemed to sense her sister's feelings; she took Odelia's hand (something she rarely did at the age of thirteen) and led her to the train. Odelia managed to hoist her trunk into a compartment, curled up in a corner near Odette and some other third years, and buried herself in The Splendor of Dragons. She could feel the rumble of the train leaving the station and frantic calls of farewell from family, but did not once look back.  
  
Having tired of her book and the idle chatter of the third years, Odelia eventually decided to take a walk. She bid a quick farewell to Odette and the sleeping Aura before setting off through the train. Several other students appeared to be doing the same, some of who stumbled due to the vehicle's movement. Odelia remembered with gratitude her parents' emphasis on posture and balance. Another young learner seemed to have had similar training, and headed towards Odelia. The latter steeled herself for her first encounter with another student.  
  
"Hello," greeted the mystery girl, a willowy figure with pitch-black hair in a tight bun, deep blue eyes and a tan that contrasted with her pale peach-colored robes. She had a polished manner, down to her perfectly manicured nails and shiny black shoes. "Do you know where I could find an empty compartment?"  
  
Odelia bit her lower lip and examined her surroundings. After a moment, she gestured with one hand toward a nearby car. "I think there's only one person in there."  
  
"Thank you," replied the other girl rather loftily. She executed a quick turn and strode to the car. Odelia, lacking anything better to do, followed suit with a wary look at the back of her companion's head. There was something not quite trustworthy about a person who paid so much attention to her appearance.  
  
Odelia had been right about the car; it was empty except for a lone girl, dressed in Muggle clothing, who looked up as the others entered. This girl's face was framed by red-gold curls, though the eyebrows that protected smoky green eyes were light brown. She smiled shyly in greeting.  
  
Mystery Girl gave Red Curls the barest of nods before levitating her trunk into its compartment. She then turned back to Red Curls, surveying her shrewdly. Odelia stood behind Mystery Girl, who didn't seem to notice her.  
  
"I'm Selena Lang," announced Mystery Girl at last, sounding as if she were doing Red Curls a favor by releasing her name.  
  
"Kira Seller," replied Red Curls as if on autopilot. Then something seemed to sink in. "Lang?" she continued cautiously. "As in Andrew?"  
  
"Who?" replied Selena. Odelia couldn't see the girl's face, but imagined a blank look.  
  
"Oh, he was a famous compiler of Muggle fairy tales," Kira explained with an embarrassed air. Her head drooped slightly and a few errant curls fell in her face.  
  
Selena tossed her head with an amazing amount of haughtiness for such a small gesture. "What would my relatives be doing with Muggle children's stories?" she demanded. Kira's pinkish skin went red and her shoulders slumped.  
  
"Gee, I don't know, becoming famous enough to be known after several centuries?" Odelia piped up sardonically. True to Odelia's earlier theory, Selena had forgotten all about Odelia's presence. She opened her mouth, clearly about to snap out a retort, but folded herself into the seat furthest away from Kira instead. Kira seemed to find even this intrusion of her space unbearable.  
  
In the brief conflict, Odelia had become sympathetic toward Kira and decided to do something about the situation. Alerting Kira with a subtle tap on the shoulder, she mouthed, "Let's get out of here," and made a face at Selena, who was looking nonchalantly out the window. A grin lit Kira's pink face; she nodded and hefted her trunk. Quietly, the two exited the car.  
  
Once outside, Odelia could breathe easily again. "What a snob," she expressed fervently. Kira nodded in agreement, still looking rather self-conscious. An inspiration flared, blue-white, in Odelia's head. "One of my Muggle friends loves The Green Fairy Book."  
  
Kira grinned again, making her look much more cheerful and at ease. "Really? That's one of my favorites too. Are you a first year?"  
  
"Mm-hm." The train went over what must have been a bump; Odelia swayed slightly but managed not to fall. So, surprisingly, did Kira. A second glance at her showed that she was built sturdily, in contrast to her sensitive demeanor. "I assume you are too?"  
  
"Yes. I'm really nervous; my parents are both Muggles and I've heard that we have to walk through a fire to be Sorted." Green-gray eyes narrowed in worry at the prospect.  
  
Odelia scoffed. "That was just one of the older students being a prick. All we have to do is try on a hat. My family's all magical, and my sister's a third year in Hufflepuff." Even I end up bringing Odette into the conversation, she reflected.  
  
"Try on a hat? That's a relief; I do that every time my mum takes me shopping," Kira joked. Odelia smiled in agreement, though privately she was rather nervous about the Sorting. When Kira asked, "Which House do you think you'll be in?" Odelia shrugged one shoulder with false insouciance.  
  
"Mum was in Gryffindor, Dad was in Ravenclaw, and Odette's a Hufflepuff. I suppose I ought to be a Slytherin to balance things out." Odelia rested one elbow on the side of the car and noticed that one of her thin glow-in-the-dark-green boots (painted while Mr. and Mrs. Delwin were out of the house) was untied. "In other words, I have no idea."  
  
"Slytherin? They say that's where all of the bad ones came from." Kira's gaze followed Odelia's down to the latter's boots. "Hey, are those magic shoes?" Her voice had the wonder and curiosity that was so common in Muggle-born students experiencing the magical world for the first time.  
  
Odelia chuckled and scuffed the toe of her boot against the floor. "Well, they have a Waterproofing Charm on them. Other than that, no. I just painted them with super-strong non-removable everlasting glow-in-the-dark green paint. Oh, and not all Slytherins are bad. My great-aunt was one."  
  
Kira, quick as a wink, looked away from Odelia's boots and toward the furthest corner of the train. "Sorry; I didn't mean to offend you."  
  
"No, it's nothing. Believe me, I've eaten more offensive things for breakfast." As Kira snorted, Odelia continued, "Want to find another place to out your luggage? I should go back to my sister soon." Kira agreed, and red-gold curls soon accompanied Odelia's dark head in poking into various cars. The first was packed with shrieking children trying to paint each other's nails by magic, the second contained several menacing-looking older students, and the third turned out to be a compartment for extra luggage ("Gee, who'd bring that much stuff?").   
  
The fourth held only two people. One was Tolkien Girl, wearing the same outlandish garb as she had on Diagon Alley, and the second was a wiry boy with light brown hair who gazed nervously at his companion. Odelia held back a smile at his obvious distrust of the older student. Instead, she turned to Kira and raised an eyebrow. Kira nodded and entered the car as unobtrusively as possible with a whispered "See you at Hogwarts!"  
  
After seeing that Kira was safely ensconced in the car, Odelia meandered back towards Odette and the other third years. She narrowly avoided colliding with the candy cart witch, who went into a state of shock that lasted all of ten seconds. To compensate, Odelia purchased a Chocolate Frog and wished the witch a nice day. "Such a lamb," the saleswitch muttered as she trundled away from Odelia. "Just like her sister."  
  
Odelia reentered her original car and pacified Aura, who had awakened and was yowling her indignation at being confined to the fuchsia carrier. "Hush, my speckled friend. I know you hate that thing," the witch sympathized. "We'll be at Hogwarts soon and you can stay with the gamekeeper - Professor McGonagall said he's very caring." She managed to poke a few fingers through the mesh of the carrier and ruffled Aura's oversized ears. With a sigh, she resigned herself to the prospect of sleeping without a large furry lump on her feet.  
  
"Everything all right?" Odette queried. Odelia nodded and moved from Aura's side to the small space left on the seat. Deftly she snatched her book from a sticky-fingered third year and opened her Chocolate Frog under Odette's amused gaze, which switched to incredulity at the sight of the contents. "It's white!" Odette had a mastery of the obvious; the frog was indeed a uniform shade of snowy white.  
  
"It's albino," Odelia corrected and nibbled at its webbed foot. Odette whisked the card away to examine it for special features, but it was only Cassandra. The card was quickly tossed to one of Odette's friends, who collected. Odelia's careful sampling of the frog proved it to be white chocolate. "It's probably a new line," she theorized. Hearing this, another third year rushed out of the car to buy more candy in the hopes of discovering other "mutants." Odelia rolled her eyes at their frenzy of excitement and quietly finished the frog just in time to hear the announcement that the train was nearing Hogwarts.  
  
The sinking feeling in Odelia's stomach grew stronger, making her wonder if the Chocolate Frog had been stale. She envied the third years their confidence - Unless, she considered insightfully, they're putting it on like me. The sound of Aura scrambling to escape her carrier, coupled with this thought, steadied Odelia somewhat. "It's just a school," she reasoned in the barest whisper. Just a school, just a school, just a school - these words provided the rhythm for the last few minutes of the train ride.  
  
---  
  
The train game to a grinding halt and chaos ensued as crowds of students flowed from their cars. Odette squeezed Odelia's shoulder before departing with her friends. Odelia left her luggage on the train, as directed, except for her book of dragons and Aura's carrier. Squeezing through every possible space in the crowd, she managed to escape the packed train and gulp the fresh air of open space. She soon glimpsed an enormous man - "The gamekeeper!" - calling for first years, and rushed toward him, much to Aura's displeasure.  
  
"Are you Professor Hagrid?" she asked breathlessly, fingering the note from McGonagall with one hand and gripping Aura's carrier with the other.  
  
"That I am," the colossus replied, black eyes twinkling. "What can I do for yeh?"  
  
"I'm Odelia Delwin," she explained hurriedly, "and Professor McGonagall said I could bring my Kneazle with me as long as she stays with you - my Kneazle, not Professor McGonagall, I mean."  
  
Hagrid's face broke into an enormous grin as he lifted Aura's carrier easily and gazed at the magical beast. "Ah, yeh're a pretty one, eh?" He then addressed Odelia: "So yeh're the little girl with the Kneazle. What's 'er name?" He was still staring happily at Aura.  
  
"Her name's Aura. She's usually well-behaved." Odelia felt a surge of relief to see that this was someone who would treat Aura with love. Looking away from Hagrid, she noticed that what seemed to be all of the other first years was gathered nearby. "Erm, sir, I think the other first years are here…" She scanned the crowd for Kira but saw no sign of her new friend.  
  
Hagrid snapped out of his trance and surveyed the crowd of whispering students. "Yeh're all here? Good; follow me!" Chattering and bustling, the students trailed Hagrid down a steep and slippery path. Odelia soon found that her fears about the Sorting were negated by fears of slipping and making a fool of herself. A detached part of her mind observed that most of the other children had grown quiet, focusing on navigating the precarious trail. Then she saw Hogwarts across a wide lake, and all of the trouble suddenly seemed worthwhile.  
  
The castle looked like it had been designed by Mad King Ludwig in an absent-minded mood. There were more towers, turrets and spires than Odelia could count, though she had never been very good at mathematics. The combination of eeriness and quirks appealed immensely to her, and she had a feeling that the school would suit her. While she contemplated the architecture, the other students seated themselves in a fleet of tiny boats, with four children in each. Odelia spotted Kira and the brown-haired boy, but their boat was full. She scrambled for the one empty boat and reached it at the same time as a largish boy with very tan skin and dirty-blond hair.  
  
For a moment the two each waited for the other to get in the boat as Hagrid called, "Hurry up there!" Seeing the humor in the situation, Odelia chuckled and seated herself. The boy cracked a smile and did the same. "Forward!" Hagrid shouted from the boat he shared with Aura, and the boats began to skim over the lake by themselves. Odelia breathed a sigh of relief.  
  
"I was afraid we'd have to row; I'm not much good at that sort of thing. Isn't the castle terrific?" Her eyes glowed with enthusiasm as the wind wafted strands of her hair all over the place.  
  
Her companion shrugged indolently. "I guess it's nice. I've seen it before in lots of pictures." As a seeming afterthought, he added, "What's your name?" and ducked just in time to avoid a curtain of ivy as the boats passed into a tunnel. "Lumos," he muttered, making the tip of his reddish wand light up.  
  
"Odelia Delwin," the witch replied, plucking a leaf out of her hair and tucking it in her pocket as a souvenir. She trailed her other hand in the water, wanting to experience the ride as fully as possible. "And you?"  
  
"I'm Ignatius Anastas. I come from a long line of Ravenclaws; I hope I get put there too." Worry was shown in his dark eyes. "What's that thing you handed to Hagrid?" Ignatius was clearly trying to change the subject, and Odelia was happy to oblige.  
  
"That was my Kneazle, Aura. The school said I could keep her as my familiar as long as she stays in Hagrid's cabin. I was absolutely thrilled; I guess you could say she's one of my best friends." She pulled her now-freezing hand out of the lake, splashing Ignatius in the process. He sputtered in mock rage and splashed Odelia back as the boat reached what seemed to be a harbor. At Hagrid's command, the students left the boats and mounted a passageway in the rock, which brought them directly to Hogwarts' imperious stone steps.  
  
"That was rather a roundabout route," Odelia joked in an attempt to alleviate the fluttering in her stomach. Her head, however, jerked towards the double oak doors of the castle as quickly as those of the other students when a tall witch with an aura of command as thick as fog greeted the party. This witch and Hagrid exchanged words quietly; then the latter left and the former opened the doors wide to admit the first years. "Here goes nothing," muttered Odelia.  
---  
  



	3. As-Sorted Confusion

Omninihil Chapter Three - As-Sorted Confusion  
  
This chapter is dedicated to Gandhi, because my little sister didn't know who he was and I find that scary.  
Standard disclaimer applies.  
  
As the group entered the enormous and dimly lit Entrance Hall, the only sound was that of footsteps on the stone floor. The flaming torches that lined the walls left burning afterimages on Odelia's eyes. She was too busy observing her surroundings to listen to the witch's speech about the Sorting ceremony, only catching the bit about smartening up while they waited. Automatically she straightened errant locks of hair, tugged her robes into position and scraped some dirt off of her boot.  
  
"Oooh, look at the ickle first years!" exclaimed a cackling voice. Levitating near the ceiling was what seemed to be a small man with an extremely obnoxious face. Several children shrieked at this apparition and many began to chatter, but Odelia knew that it was only Peeves the poltergeist. No cause for alarm, she rationalized, and was about to tell the others students so when Peeves began hitting random children with what appeared to be a rubber chicken.  
  
"Aah!"  
  
"Get it away from me!"  
  
"Help!"  
  
"Ai-ya!" From the throng, one student threw a wand like a boomerang. The wooden rod hit Peeves on the forehead and bounced back to its owner, who turned out to be (to Odelia's amazement) Kira. The line erupted with cheers, and Kira blushed while the brown-haired boy next to her looked impressed. Peeves yelped and zoomed away from the area.  
  
"That was rather impressive," admitted the tall witch - Professor McGonagall - who appeared to have witnessed the event. "Five points to whatever House you end up in." Odelia grinned to herself before remembering that the Sorting was about to begin. "In line, please," continued the Professor, "and follow me." Odelia dutifully fell into line behind Ignatius as the Professor led them into an even larger room, the Great Hall.  
  
This room was far more exciting than the last. Odelia couldn't stop gazing at the five tables - one for each House and one for the teachers - lit by hovering candles. She almost tripped over somebody else's foot while staring up at the famous enchanted ceiling, through which each star shone with brightness and clarity. Odette waved frantically from the Hufflepuff table, and Odelia managed a feeble smile. Her stomach gave a quick jump as Professor McGonagall brought out a three-legged stool and set a dilapidated hat on top of it. All occupants of the room fell silent. A rip in the hat opened like a mouth and began to sing:  
  
"This school in which you stand right now  
Was built quite long ago.  
Four wizards joined their forces strong  
To forge the place you know.  
Their students were divided then  
Four Houses held them all.  
Now I take on the ancient task:  
Deciding where you'll fall.  
Do your mind and clever wit  
Hold all your friends in awe?  
We've got the perfect place for you;  
You'll be a Ravenclaw!  
And if hard work and loyalty's  
In everything you do,  
Come and I'll Sort you straight away -  
It's Hufflepuff for you!  
If courage, nerve and daring  
Make sure your life's no bore,  
Try me on now and I'll put  
You into Gryffindor!  
If you think that cunning plans  
Are just what you were meant  
For, you'll be put in Slytherin  
Where you'll be quite content.  
Come one, come all, get Sorted -   
Satisfaction guaranteed!  
We'll see your time at Hogwarts is  
A happy one, indeed!"  
  
There was a quick burst of applause. Odelia clapped, though she wasn't particularly impressed with some of the rhymes. Then the room became quiet again and Professor McGonagall began to call out names. Odelia could feel herself turn as green as her boots, which were glowing in the dimness of the Hall.  
  
"Anastas, Ignatius!"   
  
Ignatius winced before stumbling up to the stool. He sat on the stool and placed the hat on his head; it quickly fell to cover his face. For a moment there was silence. Then the hat declared, "RAVENCLAW!" Ignatius removed it, looking relieved, and grinned at Odelia before dissolving into the cheering Ravenclaw table.  
  
"Andrews, Nora!"  
  
A tall blonde girl ran to the hat, as if to get the whole thing over with as soon as possible. She was quickly proclaimed a "GRYFFINDOR!"  
  
"Axle, Robert!"  
  
"HUFFLEPUFF!"  
  
"Bagshot, Cynthia!"  
  
"RAVENCLAW!"  
  
"Berry, Edward!"  
  
"SLYTHERIN!"  
  
"Brightling, Iris!"  
  
"GRYFFINDOR!"  
  
Odelia found herself about to chew on her knuckles but stopped the process immediately. 'Just a school, just a hat, just a House…' the names began to blend with the cheers of the older students in her head. She started humming softly to calm herself, ignoring the disbelieving looks of several students near her.  
  
"Delwin, Odelia!" Odelia gulped and, still humming, approached the Sorting hat. She almost collapsed onto the stool and tossed the hat onto her head. In an eternity of a moment, all was anticipatory silence. Then came what she dreaded - the hat's judgment. What terrible truths would it reveal?  
  
How very interesting…  
  
Just don't say I'm like Odette, Odelia prayed.  
  
Worry not; you're not at all like your sister. Not at all. You're a puzzle, child…  
  
A puzzle? Odelia winced; surely this meant she didn't belong anywhere.  
  
Keep your robes on; I'm not finished yet. Such intensity… such duality. You're driven on one side by an almost unnatural desire to do good and on the other by bitter rage. You resent your family yet are fiercely loyal to them… you desperately want people to like you but act as if you don't care. Well, well. I believe you'll be the first OMNINIHIL!  
  
Odelia took off the hat in shock. Omninihil? That wasn't a House. She looked helplessly at the other occupants of the room, but most of them seemed just as confused as she. Finally she glanced at Headmaster Dumbledore, who smiled slightly and gestured to a small empty table Odelia was sure she hadn't seen before. Amid whispers but no cheers, Odelia seated herself at the table pondering one thing: Had the hat created a new House just for her?  
  
The sorting continued with no more unusual occurrences, though Odelia didn't pay much attention. At the moment, she wished more than anything that Aura were there with her; being the only one at a table was quite awkward. She would even have been glad of Odette's presence.  
  
"Fairfax, Garland!"  
  
"SLYTHERIN!"  
  
"Filbert, Jonathon!"  
  
"HUFFLEPUFF!"  
  
"Flynn, Liam!"  
  
A long pause. Then: "OMNINIHIL!" The crowd was silent again as the brown-haired boy from the train headed towards Odelia's table. With a quiet determination, Odelia began to clap, though it sounded strange against the stony quiet. Odette and some of her Hufflepuff friends began to applaud as well, then Tolkien Girl and a few Ravenclaws. By the time Liam Flynn reached the Omninihil table, there was a decent amount of noise.  
  
"What the heck is going on?" he hissed, taking a seat across from Odelia.  
  
"I have no idea," she replied with a shrug, "But I think it's safe to assume that there are now five Houses." She stared in wonder at the three candles suspended above the table as Liam banged his elbows onto the wooden surface.  
  
"This has got to be a joke," he muttered, a black scowl making his eyebrows dive over irises of clear blue. Odelia didn't mind his foul mood; being at a table with one other person was immeasurably better than being alone.  
  
"Hamilton, Linnet!"  
  
"RAVENCLAW!"  
  
"Harper, Donovan!"  
  
"SLYTHERIN!"  
  
"What did the hat say to you?" Liam demanded abruptly with a pensive look on his face.  
  
Odelia wasn't sure she wanted to share the hat's comments. "It said I was a puzzle… and that I was interesting. And it talked about duality, and then said I would be the first Omninihil." Deciding to deflect the attention from herself, she countered, "What did it say to you?"  
  
Liam looked uncomfortable. "Uh… talked about conflict and things like that." Odelia resisted the urge to snort and tied her bootlace instead. She noticed a few other students staring at her and gave her best "Queen Elizabeth" wave.  
  
"Lance, Thomas!"  
  
"GRYFFINDOR!"  
  
"Lang, Selena!" Selena sauntered up to the hat, though Odelia was pleased to note that the girl was shaking. It took a while to decide on her, and Odelia feared for a moment that Selena would become the next Omninihil.  
  
"RAVENCLAW!" Selena smiled prettily and sat down next to Ignatius. Odelia glared at the patch of floor near the Ravenclaw table.  
  
"Such a snob," she muttered venomously. Liam glanced at Selena and shrugged noncommittally. "Met her on the train," Odelia explained, and Liam nodded in understanding. With a sigh of boredom, Odelia leaned back and crossed her arms over her stomach, gazing at the enchanted ceiling.  
  
"Morrow, Helen!"  
  
"SLYTHERIN!"  
  
"Nero, Devin!"  
  
"HUFFLEPUFF!"  
  
Odelia had never thought the Sorting would take so long, though the fact that so few people were Sorted into her own House - she had a House now! She was a student! exclaimed a small part of her brain - might have had something to do with it. Still, she wished she could eat while the Sorting was occurring.  
  
"Ryan, Evan!"  
  
"GRYFFINDOR!"  
  
"Sellers, Kira!" Odelia and Liam quickly turned to Kira, whose normally pink face had gone pale as she took the hat from Evan Ryan and set it on her own head. The room was engulfed by silence for what seemed like eternity; Odelia hoped against all reason that Kira would be placed in…  
  
"OMNINIHIL!" Odelia felt a grin of relief spread across her face as she and Liam clapped. Kira grinned back as she joined the table.  
  
"I don't know what's going on," she expressed, "but I'm glad we're together." She and Liam seemed to have gotten to know each other on the train; Liam's scowl ceased momentarily to give Kira a surprisingly sunny smile.  
  
"Starling, Hyacinth!"  
  
"RAVENCLAW!"  
  
"Sterling, Michael!"  
  
"HUFFLEPUFF!"  
  
"Swenson, Samuel!"  
  
"SLYTHERIN!"  
  
"I hope it ends soon; I'm hungry," Liam complained. "And I want to know what's going on." His blue eyes suddenly widened and he clapped his hands over his face. "Oh no! How are we supposed to have a Quidditch team? That hat's defective!"  
  
"Do you even play Quidditch?" Odelia cut in, slightly annoyed at the onslaught of complaints.  
  
"Well, no," Liam admitted, "but I was going to try." Kira stopped tapping out a rhythm on the table with her wand and raised an eyebrow at Liam.  
  
"That was lame." She then returned to her percussion, not noticing Liam's scowl deepen. Odelia wondered if his face would be stuck that way.  
  
"Yule, Meadow!"  
  
"GRYFFINDOR!"  
  
With that, Professor McGonagall carried the hat and stool away and the Great Hall erupted with boisterous cheers. The three Omninihils joined in. The Headmaster stood at his place at the Head Table and gestured for silence. Most of the students complied, though there were still a few whispers.  
  
"Before we begin what I'm sure will be an exciting new year," Dumbledore began, "I am compelled to make a few quick announcements. First, all students are now allowed to enter the Forbidden Forest." The Hall was as silent as still water. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled from behind half-moon spectacles. "Not." There were several disappointed groans. "Sorry, but I had to get your attention. The Forbidden Forest is off-limits as usual, and first years are not allowed broomsticks without special permission. Mr. Filch has requested that I emphasize the importance of clean floors in the school; if it is possible for you to levitate through the hallways, please do so." Was he joking or serious? It was impossible to tell. "As I'm sure you have noticed, we have a new House this year. I hope you will all welcome Omninihil." He retained his poise while students began to chatter and whisper again. "Remember, the quieter you are the sooner you can eat." Silence.  
  
"As most of you know, the Hogwarts Houses are named after the school's founders - Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. What most people don't know is that they had an assistant of sorts, a very bright young woman by the name of Ondine Omninihil." Odelia leaned forward to catch every word; at last things were being explained. Liam stopped scowling to improve his concentration, and Kira bit one of her fingernails.  
  
"Omninihil was known as a child prodigy; at the age of seventeen she was already a skilled witch. According to records, she asked to help with the Hogwarts project and was received enthusiastically. Unfortunately, there was an… accident… later and Omninihil was driven away and never seen again. Her name has been wiped from most documents concerning Hogwarts's history, but the fact remains that she was the fifth Founder. I ask our three Omninihils to approach me after the feast for further information. Let's eat!"  
  
Odelia jerked away from the table as it began to fill with dishes of food. She was amused to see that Liam's elbow was stuck in a bowl of mashed potatoes, but handed him a napkin to help clean it off. Kira kept an admirably straight face and remarked, "It's going to be an interesting year, eh?"  
  
"Indeed it is," Odelia replied, attempting to use two forks at once to fill her plate faster. Kira tried to wave her wand and make the food come to her, but ended up hitting Odelia's arm. "Hey, careful there!"  
  
Kira shrank back for a moment, face crimson and eyebrows almost hidden in her hair. Odelia smiled to show that it was no big deal, inwardly sighing at Kira's over sensitivity. Oh well, she thought, if they can put up with my faults I can put up with theirs. Liam wasn't eating; instead he sat heavily in his chair, looking at a kidney pie with disgust. "Something wrong?" Odelia inquired gently, not wanting to inspire another rant.  
  
"Food's got too much meat in it," Liam grumbled more quietly than usual.  
  
Odelia raised a dark eyebrow. "Are you a vegetarian?" Liam nodded, 'Do you have a problem with that?' plastered over his face. Odelia only smiled and slid the plate of string beans under Kira's arm. "These better?" A relieved grin replaced Liam's stoic countenance.  
  
Even the best of meals can only go on so long, and so it was with this one. The plates began to disappear. Odelia held onto one to see what would happen, but it vanished from her grasp. Drowsy from the long day and large repast, she rested her head on the back of her chair and tried to count the stars while Dumbledore instructed all students to follow their prefects to their common rooms. "Wonder if we have a common room," Odelia whispered absently. As the rest of the students left the room in a collective osmosis, Odelia headed in the direction of Dumbledore and beckoned her housemates to follow her.  
  
"Professor Dumbledore, sir?" Odelia gazed respectfully at the venerable wizard, who was speaking to another teacher with graying hair and kind eyes. "We're the Omninihils…"  
  
"Ah, yes." Dumbledore smiled benevolently. "I would like you to meet Professor Lupin, your de facto Head of House, since none of the professors were in Omninihil." Odelia beamed and tried to keep from radiating enthusiasm; according to Odette, Lupin was the best Professor ever. "Due the small number of students in your House, you will have Transfiguration with Gryffindor, Defense Against the Dark Arts with Ravenclaw, History of Magic with Hufflepuff, Charms with Slytherin, Herbology with Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, and Potions with Ravenclaw and Slytherin." He looked at Liam's confused expression and chuckled. "You needn't try to remember all of that; it'll be on your schedules. Now, I'm sure you're all tired, so Professor Lupin will lead you to your common room and sleeping quarters."  
  
"Thank you, sir," murmured Odelia, who seemed to have silently been elected the group's spokesperson. Lupin smiled at the three first years and gestured in the direction of the Entrance Hall; the students followed obediently like a row of ducklings.  
  
"I must say," Lupin expressed, ascending the marble staircase, "This Sorting was one of the most interesting in several years." He grinned candidly. "It may earn an article in the Daily Prophet."  
  
"Stupid media," grumbled Liam, trying to avoid tripping over his robes.  
  
"Well, maybe we could tell the reporters that you have an embarrassing skin condition if they try to take your picture," Odelia offered with a wicked grin.  
  
"Eh, well, I don't know if that would be necessary," Liam replied hurriedly. "I mean, my mum and dad wouldn't be happy about it."  
  
Kira sighed in mock admiration. "Such a martyr." Odelia noticed that although Lupin didn't interrupt the students' exchange, he was still grinning. Once on the second floor, the small group turned to the right and reached a carved circle, etched lightly into the stone wall.  
  
"Puffapod," announced Lupin, and a hidden door slid open to reveal a room. Of medium size, its walls were papered in a pattern of interlocking teal and salmon swirls. A thick salmon-colored carpet covered the floor, and a mobile of shimmering black feathers dangled from the ceiling. There was a curved teal couch in each corner of the back of the room, with a gray stone fireplace between them. Fir cones burned in this hearth, releasing scented smoke to the sky. There was a teal-painted door with salmon trim on each side of the room, presumably leading to boys' and girls' dorms. "Nice room," Lupin commented, and then laughed. "I'll confess that I'm as new to being Head of House as you are to being students, so I might make a few mistakes. Just talk to me if you need anything, or if you feel like other Professors" (his eyebrows furrowed slightly) "are treating you unfairly. The door on the left is for boys and the one on the right is for girls. Anything more you need?"  
  
The three Omninihils looked at each other and collectively shrugged.  
  
"Guess not," Liam surmised, looking less grouchy than usual.  
  
"Thanks for helping us get settled," added Odelia, in accord with her parents' instructions and her own feelings.  
  
Lupin smiled and stifled a yawn. "I'll see you all tomorrow then. Don't forget the password." With that, he exited the common room and the door slid shut behind him. Odelia, Liam and Kira stared at each other for a moment in mutual uncertainty. Then Odelia yawned, and the other two followed suit.  
  
"I'm going to hit the sack. It's late and I'll bet we're supposed to get up early tomorrow," predicted Kira. Odelia nodded consent.  
  
"Yeah," Liam agreed, "I guess I'll go to bed too. G'night." He strolled toward the door on the left as Odelia and Kira headed to the one on the right.  
  
The dorms, like the common room, were carpeted in thick salmon, but gray stone replaced the pattern of the latter. Teal silk hangings enclosed two beds with a window between them; Odelia's luggage sat in front of one, Kira's before the other. The witches climbed into their respective beds with whispers of "Good night," and Odelia pulled her curtains shut to change into her nightgown.  
  
"Hey, Odelia!" Kira whispered as loudly as possible.  
  
"What?" Odelia poked her head out from between the curtains.  
  
"The crest on our robes has changed; look at yours," Kira explained. Odelia complied and had to keep herself from gasping. Between the Hufflepuff badger and the Ravenclaw eagle, on a background of teal and salmon, was a black swan.  
  
---  
  
As the group entered the enormous and dimly lit Entrance Hall, the only sound was that of footsteps on the stone floor. The flaming torches that lined the walls left burning afterimages on Odelia's eyes. She was too busy observing her surroundings to listen to the witch's speech about the Sorting ceremony, only catching the bit about smartening up while they waited. Automatically she straightened errant locks of hair, tugged her robes into position and scraped some dirt off of her boot.  
  
"Oooh, look at the ickle first years!" exclaimed a cackling voice. Levitating near the ceiling was what seemed to be a small man with an extremely obnoxious face. Several children shrieked at this apparition and many began to chatter, but Odelia knew that it was only Peeves the poltergeist. No cause for alarm, she rationalized, and was about to tell the others students so when Peeves began hitting random children with what appeared to be a rubber chicken.  
  
"Aah!"  
  
"Get it away from me!"  
  
"Help!"  
  
"Ai-ya!" From the throng, one student threw a wand like a boomerang. The wooden rod hit Peeves on the forehead and bounced back to its owner, who turned out to be (to Odelia's amazement) Kira. The line erupted with cheers, and Kira blushed while the brown-haired boy next to her looked impressed. Peeves yelped and zoomed away from the area.  
  
"That was rather impressive," admitted the tall witch - Professor McGonagall - who appeared to have witnessed the event. "Five points to whatever House you end up in." Odelia grinned to herself before remembering that the Sorting was about to begin. "In line, please," continued the Professor, "and follow me." Odelia dutifully fell into line behind Ignatius as the Professor led them into an even larger room, the Great Hall.  
  
This room was far more exciting than the last. Odelia couldn't stop gazing at the five tables - one for each House and one for the teachers - lit by hovering candles. She almost tripped over somebody else's foot while staring up at the famous enchanted ceiling, through which each star shone with brightness and clarity. Odette waved frantically from the Hufflepuff table, and Odelia managed a feeble smile. Her stomach gave a quick jump as Professor McGonagall brought out a three-legged stool and set a dilapidated hat on top of it. All occupants of the room fell silent. A rip in the hat opened like a mouth and began to sing:  
  
"This school in which you stand right now  
Was built quite long ago.  
Four wizards joined their forces strong  
To forge the place you know.  
Their students were divided then  
Four Houses held them all.  
Now I take on the ancient task:  
Deciding where you'll fall.  
Do your mind and clever wit  
Hold all your friends in awe?  
We've got the perfect place for you;  
You'll be a Ravenclaw!  
And if hard work and loyalty's  
In everything you do,  
Come and I'll Sort you straight away -  
It's Hufflepuff for you!  
If courage, nerve and daring  
Make sure your life's no bore,  
Try me on now and I'll put  
You into Gryffindor!  
If you think that cunning plans  
Are just what you were meant  
For, you'll be put in Slytherin  
Where you'll be quite content.  
Come one, come all, get Sorted -   
Satisfaction guaranteed!  
We'll see your time at Hogwarts is  
A happy one, indeed!"  
  
There was a quick burst of applause. Odelia clapped, though she wasn't particularly impressed with some of the rhymes. Then the room became quiet again and Professor McGonagall began to call out names. Odelia could feel herself turn as green as her boots, which were glowing in the dimness of the Hall.  
  
"Anastas, Ignatius!"   
  
Ignatius winced before stumbling up to the stool. He sat on the stool and placed the hat on his head; it quickly fell to cover his face. For a moment there was silence. Then the hat declared, "RAVENCLAW!" Ignatius removed it, looking relieved, and grinned at Odelia before dissolving into the cheering Ravenclaw table.  
  
"Andrews, Nora!"  
  
A tall blonde girl ran to the hat, as if to get the whole thing over with as soon as possible. She was quickly proclaimed a "GRYFFINDOR!"  
  
"Axle, Robert!"  
  
"HUFFLEPUFF!"  
  
"Bagshot, Cynthia!"  
  
"RAVENCLAW!"  
  
"Berry, Edward!"  
  
"SLYTHERIN!"  
  
"Brightling, Iris!"  
  
"GRYFFINDOR!"  
  
Odelia found herself about to chew on her knuckles but stopped the process immediately. 'Just a school, just a hat, just a House…' the names began to blend with the cheers of the older students in her head. She started humming softly to calm herself, ignoring the disbelieving looks of several students near her.  
  
"Delwin, Odelia!" Odelia gulped and, still humming, approached the Sorting hat. She almost collapsed onto the stool and tossed the hat onto her head. In an eternity of a moment, all was anticipatory silence. Then came what she dreaded - the hat's judgment. What terrible truths would it reveal?  
  
How very interesting…  
  
Just don't say I'm like Odette, Odelia prayed.  
  
Worry not; you're not at all like your sister. Not at all. You're a puzzle, child…  
  
A puzzle? Odelia winced; surely this meant she didn't belong anywhere.  
  
Keep your robes on; I'm not finished yet. Such intensity… such duality. You're driven on one side by an almost unnatural desire to do good and on the other by bitter rage. You resent your family yet are fiercely loyal to them… you desperately want people to like you but act as if you don't care. Well, well. I believe you'll be the first OMNINIHIL!  
  
Odelia took off the hat in shock. Omninihil? That wasn't a House. She looked helplessly at the other occupants of the room, but most of them seemed just as confused as she. Finally she glanced at Headmaster Dumbledore, who smiled slightly and gestured to a small empty table Odelia was sure she hadn't seen before. Amid whispers but no cheers, Odelia seated herself at the table pondering one thing: Had the hat created a new House just for her?  
  
The sorting continued with no more unusual occurrences, though Odelia didn't pay much attention. At the moment, she wished more than anything that Aura were there with her; being the only one at a table was quite awkward. She would even have been glad of Odette's presence.  
  
"Fairfax, Garland!"  
  
"SLYTHERIN!"  
  
"Filbert, Jonathon!"  
  
"HUFFLEPUFF!"  
  
"Flynn, Liam!"  
  
A long pause. Then: "OMNINIHIL!" The crowd was silent again as the brown-haired boy from the train headed towards Odelia's table. With a quiet determination, Odelia began to clap, though it sounded strange against the stony quiet. Odette and some of her Hufflepuff friends began to applaud as well, then Tolkien Girl and a few Ravenclaws. By the time Liam Flynn reached the Omninihil table, there was a decent amount of noise.  
  
"What the heck is going on?" he hissed, taking a seat across from Odelia.  
  
"I have no idea," she replied with a shrug, "But I think it's safe to assume that there are now five Houses." She stared in wonder at the three candles suspended above the table as Liam banged his elbows onto the wooden surface.  
  
"This has got to be a joke," he muttered, a black scowl making his eyebrows dive over irises of clear blue. Odelia didn't mind his foul mood; being at a table with one other person was immeasurably better than being alone.  
  
"Hamilton, Linnet!"  
  
"RAVENCLAW!"  
  
"Harper, Donovan!"  
  
"SLYTHERIN!"  
  
"What did the hat say to you?" Liam demanded abruptly with a pensive look on his face.  
  
Odelia wasn't sure she wanted to share the hat's comments. "It said I was a puzzle… and that I was interesting. And it talked about duality, and then said I would be the first Omninihil." Deciding to deflect the attention from herself, she countered, "What did it say to you?"  
  
Liam looked uncomfortable. "Uh… talked about conflict and things like that." Odelia resisted the urge to snort and tied her bootlace instead. She noticed a few other students staring at her and gave her best "Queen Elizabeth" wave.  
  
"Lance, Thomas!"  
  
"GRYFFINDOR!"  
  
"Lang, Selena!" Selena sauntered up to the hat, though Odelia was pleased to note that the girl was shaking. It took a while to decide on her, and Odelia feared for a moment that Selena would become the next Omninihil.  
  
"RAVENCLAW!" Selena smiled prettily and sat down next to Ignatius. Odelia glared at the patch of floor near the Ravenclaw table.  
  
"Such a snob," she muttered venomously. Liam glanced at Selena and shrugged noncommittally. "Met her on the train," Odelia explained, and Liam nodded in understanding. With a sigh of boredom, Odelia leaned back and crossed her arms over her stomach, gazing at the enchanted ceiling.  
  
"Morrow, Helen!"  
  
"SLYTHERIN!"  
  
"Nero, Devin!"  
  
"HUFFLEPUFF!"  
  
Odelia had never thought the Sorting would take so long, though the fact that so few people were Sorted into her own House - she had a House now! She was a student! exclaimed a small part of her brain - might have had something to do with it. Still, she wished she could eat while the Sorting was occurring.  
  
"Ryan, Evan!"  
  
"GRYFFINDOR!"  
  
"Sellers, Kira!" Odelia and Liam quickly turned to Kira, whose normally pink face had gone pale as she took the hat from Evan Ryan and set it on her own head. The room was engulfed by silence for what seemed like eternity; Odelia hoped against all reason that Kira would be placed in…  
  
"OMNINIHIL!" Odelia felt a grin of relief spread across her face as she and Liam clapped. Kira grinned back as she joined the table.  
  
"I don't know what's going on," she expressed, "but I'm glad we're together." She and Liam seemed to have gotten to know each other on the train; Liam's scowl ceased momentarily to give Kira a surprisingly sunny smile.  
  
"Starling, Hyacinth!"  
  
"RAVENCLAW!"  
  
"Sterling, Michael!"  
  
"HUFFLEPUFF!"  
  
"Swenson, Samuel!"  
  
"SLYTHERIN!"  
  
"I hope it ends soon; I'm hungry," Liam complained. "And I want to know what's going on." His blue eyes suddenly widened and he clapped his hands over his face. "Oh no! How are we supposed to have a Quidditch team? That hat's defective!"  
  
"Do you even play Quidditch?" Odelia cut in, slightly annoyed at the onslaught of complaints.  
  
"Well, no," Liam admitted, "but I was going to try." Kira stopped tapping out a rhythm on the table with her wand and raised an eyebrow at Liam.  
  
"That was lame." She then returned to her percussion, not noticing Liam's scowl deepen. Odelia wondered if his face would be stuck that way.  
  
"Yule, Meadow!"  
  
"GRYFFINDOR!"  
  
With that, Professor McGonagall carried the hat and stool away and the Great Hall erupted with boisterous cheers. The three Omninihils joined in. The Headmaster stood at his place at the Head Table and gestured for silence. Most of the students complied, though there were still a few whispers.  
  
"Before we begin what I'm sure will be an exciting new year," Dumbledore began, "I am compelled to make a few quick announcements. First, all students are now allowed to enter the Forbidden Forest." The Hall was as silent as still water. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled from behind half-moon spectacles. "Not." There were several disappointed groans. "Sorry, but I had to get your attention. The Forbidden Forest is off-limits as usual, and first years are not allowed broomsticks without special permission. Mr. Filch has requested that I emphasize the importance of clean floors in the school; if it is possible for you to levitate through the hallways, please do so." Was he joking or serious? It was impossible to tell. "As I'm sure you have noticed, we have a new House this year. I hope you will all welcome Omninihil." He retained his poise while students began to chatter and whisper again. "Remember, the quieter you are the sooner you can eat." Silence.  
  
"As most of you know, the Hogwarts Houses are named after the school's founders - Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. What most people don't know is that they had an assistant of sorts, a very bright young woman by the name of Ondine Omninihil." Odelia leaned forward to catch every word; at last things were being explained. Liam stopped scowling to improve his concentration, and Kira bit one of her fingernails.  
  
"Omninihil was known as a child prodigy; at the age of seventeen she was already a skilled witch. According to records, she asked to help with the Hogwarts project and was received enthusiastically. Unfortunately, there was an… accident… later and Omninihil was driven away and never seen again. Her name has been wiped from most documents concerning Hogwarts's history, but the fact remains that she was the fifth Founder. I ask our three Omninihils to approach me after the feast for further information. Let's eat!"  
  
Odelia jerked away from the table as it began to fill with dishes of food. She was amused to see that Liam's elbow was stuck in a bowl of mashed potatoes, but handed him a napkin to help clean it off. Kira kept an admirably straight face and remarked, "It's going to be an interesting year, eh?"  
  
"Indeed it is," Odelia replied, attempting to use two forks at once to fill her plate faster. Kira tried to wave her wand and make the food come to her, but ended up hitting Odelia's arm. "Hey, careful there!"  
  
Kira shrank back for a moment, face crimson and eyebrows almost hidden in her hair. Odelia smiled to show that it was no big deal, inwardly sighing at Kira's over sensitivity. Oh well, she thought, if they can put up with my faults I can put up with theirs. Liam wasn't eating; instead he sat heavily in his chair, looking at a kidney pie with disgust. "Something wrong?" Odelia inquired gently, not wanting to inspire another rant.  
  
"Food's got too much meat in it," Liam grumbled more quietly than usual.  
  
Odelia raised a dark eyebrow. "Are you a vegetarian?" Liam nodded, 'Do you have a problem with that?' plastered over his face. Odelia only smiled and slid the plate of string beans under Kira's arm. "These better?" A relieved grin replaced Liam's stoic countenance.  
  
Even the best of meals can only go on so long, and so it was with this one. The plates began to disappear. Odelia held onto one to see what would happen, but it vanished from her grasp. Drowsy from the long day and large repast, she rested her head on the back of her chair and tried to count the stars while Dumbledore instructed all students to follow their prefects to their common rooms. "Wonder if we have a common room," Odelia whispered absently. As the rest of the students left the room in a collective osmosis, Odelia headed in the direction of Dumbledore and beckoned her housemates to follow her.  
  
"Professor Dumbledore, sir?" Odelia gazed respectfully at the venerable wizard, who was speaking to another teacher with graying hair and kind eyes. "We're the Omninihils…"  
  
"Ah, yes." Dumbledore smiled benevolently. "I would like you to meet Professor Lupin, your de facto Head of House, since none of the professors were in Omninihil." Odelia beamed and tried to keep from radiating enthusiasm; according to Odette, Lupin was the best Professor ever. "Due the small number of students in your House, you will have Transfiguration with Gryffindor, Defense Against the Dark Arts with Ravenclaw, History of Magic with Hufflepuff, Charms with Slytherin, Herbology with Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, and Potions with Ravenclaw and Slytherin." He looked at Liam's confused expression and chuckled. "You needn't try to remember all of that; it'll be on your schedules. Now, I'm sure you're all tired, so Professor Lupin will lead you to your common room and sleeping quarters."  
  
"Thank you, sir," murmured Odelia, who seemed to have silently been elected the group's spokesperson. Lupin smiled at the three first years and gestured in the direction of the Entrance Hall; the students followed obediently like a row of ducklings.  
  
"I must say," Lupin expressed, ascending the marble staircase, "This Sorting was one of the most interesting in several years." He grinned candidly. "It may earn an article in the Daily Prophet."  
  
"Stupid media," grumbled Liam, trying to avoid tripping over his robes.  
  
"Well, maybe we could tell the reporters that you have an embarrassing skin condition if they try to take your picture," Odelia offered with a wicked grin.  
  
"Eh, well, I don't know if that would be necessary," Liam replied hurriedly. "I mean, my mum and dad wouldn't be happy about it."  
  
Kira sighed in mock admiration. "Such a martyr." Odelia noticed that although Lupin didn't interrupt the students' exchange, he was still grinning. Once on the second floor, the small group turned to the right and reached a carved circle, etched lightly into the stone wall.  
  
"Puffapod," announced Lupin, and a hidden door slid open to reveal a room. Of medium size, its walls were papered in a pattern of interlocking teal and salmon swirls. A thick salmon-colored carpet covered the floor, and a mobile of shimmering black feathers dangled from the ceiling. There was a curved teal couch in each corner of the back of the room, with a gray stone fireplace between them. Fir cones burned in this hearth, releasing scented smoke to the sky. There was a teal-painted door with salmon trim on each side of the room, presumably leading to boys' and girls' dorms. "Nice room," Lupin commented, and then laughed. "I'll confess that I'm as new to being Head of House as you are to being students, so I might make a few mistakes. Just talk to me if you need anything, or if you feel like other Professors" (his eyebrows furrowed slightly) "are treating you unfairly. The door on the left is for boys and the one on the right is for girls. Anything more you need?"  
  
The three Omninihils looked at each other and collectively shrugged.  
  
"Guess not," Liam surmised, looking less grouchy than usual.  
  
"Thanks for helping us get settled," added Odelia, in accord with her parents' instructions and her own feelings.  
  
Lupin smiled and stifled a yawn. "I'll see you all tomorrow then. Don't forget the password." With that, he exited the common room and the door slid shut behind him. Odelia, Liam and Kira stared at each other for a moment in mutual uncertainty. Then Odelia yawned, and the other two followed suit.  
  
"I'm going to hit the sack. It's late and I'll bet we're supposed to get up early tomorrow," predicted Kira. Odelia nodded consent.  
  
"Yeah," Liam agreed, "I guess I'll go to bed too. G'night." He strolled toward the door on the left as Odelia and Kira headed to the one on the right.  
  
The dorms, like the common room, were carpeted in thick salmon, but gray stone replaced the pattern of the latter. Teal silk hangings enclosed two beds with a window between them; Odelia's luggage sat in front of one, Kira's before the other. The witches climbed into their respective beds with whispers of "Good night," and Odelia pulled her curtains shut to change into her nightgown.  
  
"Hey, Odelia!" Kira whispered as loudly as possible.  
  
"What?" Odelia poked her head out from between the curtains.  
  
"The crest on our robes has changed; look at yours," Kira explained. Odelia complied and had to keep herself from gasping. Between the Hufflepuff badger and the Ravenclaw eagle, on a background of teal and salmon, was a black swan.  
  
---  
  



	4. In A Jam

Omninihil, Chapter Four - In A Jam  
  
This chapter is dedicated to the kid who played an alien in a school play. I don't know his name, but ayone who can sing a love song inside an oversized guinea pig cage without cracking up must be quite special.  
  
Sleep was a deep green pool of oblivion, and Odelia was at perfect peace suspended there. She struggled against the hand that was pulling her up toward the light, away from serene infinity.  
  
Kira finally yanked the covers away from Odelia's curled-up form. "We're going to be late for breakfast! Come on… wake up…" With a piteous moan, Odelia complied. The blurry world outside her eyelids slid into focus. There was Kira, looking far too alert for such an hour, dressed in her uniform with wand in pocket.  
  
"All right, all right, I'm coming…" a yawn erupted from within Odelia's face. She fumbled in her trunk for clothing and pulled the silk hangings closed around her bed for privacy. Light from the nearby window shone through the curtains, flooding Odelia's little space with a blue-green glow. The school robes, to Odelia's relief, were a barrier of warmth against the chill of the morning. Feeling more awake, she emerged from her bed and spread her arms wide, like a butterfly bursting from its chrysalis. Kira viewed the scene with amusement.  
  
"What can I say? I have a flair for the dramatic," Odelia defended herself, shoving tiny feet into her boots while running a comb through her hair. "Who woke you up?"  
  
Kira laughed and yawned. "I always get up with the sun." Finishing her preparations, Odelia joined Kira in going to the common room. There was no sign of Liam, but in the dawn silence the girls could hear snoring from the left side of the room. With a giggle, Kira volunteered, "I'll go wake him up." Odelia took the opportunity to sit by the fireplace and gaze into the flames. The blazing colors crackled softly as spirals of smoke escaped from the smoldering heat.  
  
Kira triumphantly dragged a lethargic Liam from the boys' dorm. Though his hair was tousled and his eyes were mere cracks in his face, he somehow had the energy to complain.  
  
"The food isn't going to go away if we aren't the first ones there, you know -" (yawn) "why are you looking so cheerful?" His eyes narrowed further, a feat Odelia would have sworn was impossible. "Are you one of those /morning people/?"  
  
Kira rolled her eyes. "Yes, I seem like an ordinary girl by evening, but at dawn I magically become - Morning Person!" She twirled, flaring her robes like a cape. "Sleeping peacefully by moonlight, fighting drowsiness by sunlight, all dozers shall feel my power!" Completing her sequence, she laughed maniacally.  
  
"Somebody's been watching too much telly-vision," Odelia groaned. Liam nodded his assent.  
  
"Sorry. I guess I got carried away." Kira's face went red and she looked sheepishly at the floor. Her pale blue sneakers looked like they were trying to sink into the ground.  
  
With a sigh, Odelia assured her, "It's no big deal. Come on, we might as well get breakfast since we're all awake. We need our schedules too." The three exited the common room ("Remember the password!"), the two witches supporting Liam, who was still stumbling quite a bit. Odelia slid her fingers down the smooth banner of the marble staircase, noticing that the Entrance Hall looked far less eerie by daylight. There were a few students milling about, and more noise drifted from the Great Hall. Odelia thought she heard whispers from the other students, but attributed it to an overactive imagination.  
  
The Great Hall was fairly quiet compared to the hubbub of the previous night; apparently few students shared Kira's fondness for early rising. The Omninihil table was almost hidden among the larger ones, but Odelia soon spotted it. Liam fell gratefully into his chair, and Odelia was hard-pressed to keep her usual perfect posture. Kira was, in Odelia's opinion, far more cheerful than anyone had a right to be at such an hour. While carefully choosing bits of food for her plate - toast with butter and jam, a leftover piece of cake - Odelia noted that most of the teachers were at the head table, and only Dumbledore looked happy to be there. One hawk-nosed man wore a scowl darker than that of Liam, who was now placated by the more vegetarian-friendly breakfast food.  
  
"Help me open this, will you?" Odelia requested of Liam, struggling with a stubborn jar of jam. Liam nodded with a mouthful of toast and attempted, with shaking fingers, to open the jar. He gave up quickly and swallowed his food.  
  
"It's no go." With clenched teeth, he banged the jar against the table until Kira plucked it from his grasp. She frowned in concentration and grunted, going red with exertion. In an instant, she had the lid triumphantly in her hand - as the jar went flying across the table to land on a neatly folded stack of white paper.  
  
"Oops." Kira bit her lower lip and stared anxiously at the jar. "Do you think those papers are important?"  
  
Odelia shrugged nonchalantly. "They're just napkins, see?" She strode to the other side of the table and, wincing, lifted the sticky jar. "Oh…" Liam and Kira looked alarmed when they saw Odelia's worried expression.  
  
"What is it?" Liam came quickly to stand by Odelia. "Oh, no. Our schedules!" Kira rushed to join the others, and for a moment all three stared in silence at the jam-stained schedules. "What are we going to do?" His eyes were almost comically wide.  
  
"Lupin," Odelia decided. Kira and Liam looked at her, bemused. "He's our Head of House. I think he'll understand."  
  
Kira nodded slowly. "Good idea… but who's going to tell him?" She looked searchingly at Liam, who shook his head. Then they both turned to Odelia.  
  
The chosen one sighed. "All right, but you two owe me." Odelia's two housemates nodded in understanding as their delegate gingerly took hold of the disgusting schedules and approached the staff table, holding the offending pieces of paper at arm's length. "Professor Lupin?" Lupin turned from his conversation with Professor Sprout.  
  
"Good morning, Odelia." He wrinkled his nose at the sheets of paper. "What's that? I don't expect my students to give me gifts," he added jokingly.  
  
Odelia took a deep breath. "Well, we were having trouble opening a jar of jam, and when Kira finally got it open, it… sort of flew across the table and got all over our schedules." Shuddering at the glutinous mass before her, she awaited a verdict. Lupin's face was convoluted in what looked suspiciously like a smile, a good sign.  
  
"Well," the professor replied, once he'd gotten his face under control, "There happens to be an excellent charm for getting rid of sticky things." He flourished his wand and muttered a few words. To Odelia's great relief, the jam turned into a swirl of red dust and diffused into the air. "That ought to work."  
  
"Oh, thank you very much." Odelia carefully placed the papers in her pocket. "I promise," she added with a hint of mischief, "we'll be more careful with our schedules - and jam - in the future." Feeling far more light-hearted, she hurried back to the Omninihil table to present her friends with their schedules. "Ta-da!" Kira and Liam let out identical sighs of relief.  
  
"Let's see what classes we have…" Kira produced a pair of green-rimmed reading glasses and examined her schedule, looking studious. "Charms, Herbology, Transfiguration, lunch…"  
  
"Potions, History of Magic, and Defense Against the Dark Arts," Liam finished. Odelia was busy catching up on the breakfast she'd missed while talking with Lupin. "Hey, Odelia, I think this owl has a letter for you…" Odelia looked up to see a huge black owl perched on Liam's shoulder and the familiar shape of Darwin.  
  
"Darwin!" Seeing Mrs. Delwin's owl brought on a wave of homesickness Odelia hadn't known she was suppressing, and she eagerly unrolled the parchment Darwin carried. It was a letter from Mara Delwin, which read:  
  
Dear Odelia,  
  
Odette owled us about the Sorting. We were very surprised, but the Sorting Hat's never been wrong and we hope you are happy in Omninihil. What are your housemates like? Odette says there are only two others. Who's your House Head? Did your luggage arrive safely? Odette says she saw you hand Aura's carrier to the gamekeeper, so we're assuming that everything's all right with that. I hope that you've been following our advice for a successful school career. You have a lot of potential; if you use it you could be one of the top students in your year. Did you bring those horrible boots with you? I've told you time and time again how important first impressions are; if you wear those crazy things Dumbledore will think you're some kind of hooligan. Please, please don't correct the teachers if they give a tiny piece of misinformation. Owl us as soon as possible.  
  
Much Love,  
Mum and Dad  
  
Odelia pocketed the letter with a mixture of comfort and aggravation. Sighing slightly, she took a quill and a bit of parchment and scrawled a reply, telling her parents what they would want to hear. She was tempted to lie about the glowing green boots, but childhood memories of the Pinocchius Charm prevented her from telling outright falsehoods. Instead, she wrote that she had brought her perfectly respectable brown shoes, which was true - the fact that these shoes were to remain in her trunk all year was a minor detail.  
  
When she looked up again, Liam was feeding scraps of toast to the enormous black owl. The avian hooted in a surprisingly gentle voice and nipped at Liam's hair. Odelia handed her letter to Darwin, who promptly fled the scene, before asking about the ebony bird. "Is that your owl?"  
  
Liam scratched under the owl's beak. "Yeah. His name's Orion." Interesting name for a vegetarian's owl, Odelia mused. "Got him as a birthday present. He's a good owl." There was a rare note of warmth in the wizard's normally cynical tone.  
  
"He's cool," Kira declared. "I have a kitten back in the dorm."  
  
Odelia raised an eyebrow. "A kitten? I didn't see it." From a very early age, Odelia had been fond of creatures of the feline nature.  
  
"He was sleeping," explained Kira with a fond smile. "He's still very young, so he needs lots of rest." Odelia nodded in understanding, remembering Aura's days of kittenhood.  
  
"Odelia, are you done that toast?" Liam was standing, Orion-less, and clutching his schedule. "We're going to be late to, uh, whatever class we have."  
  
"Charms," Odelia replied automatically, picking up her empty plate and finding that there was no sink in which to put it. "I'm finished. Let's go get our books and such." Kira volunteered to get the books to save time, and rushed off. Liam glimpsed Tolkien Girl and attempted to hide behind Odelia, a flawed plan since Liam was the taller of the two. Odelia meanwhile busied herself in memorizing her schedule.  
  
"I'm back!" Kira appeared, out of breath and holding three Charms textbooks and quills.  
  
"Charms, Herbology, Transfiguration… oh, thanks." After prying her eyes from the schedule, Odelia hefted her textbook. "Let's go."  
  
"Where is the Charms classroom, anyway?" Liam queried. He and Kira turned expectantly to Odelia. She responded with several rapid blinks of her sleepy eyes.  
  
"Erm…" tilting her head, she delivered her answer. "I don't know." Immediately taking in her friends' looks of exasperation, Odelia defended herself. "Just because I have a sister here doesn't make me the expert. Let's go ask Lupin." With a sense of déjà vu, the Omninihils set off for the staff table, only to find that Lupin was gone.  
  
Kira began to panic. "What are we going to do? We'll be late to our first class!"  
  
"Honestly, what's the use of having a sister here if you don't ask her for directions?" Liam complained. Odelia's eyes widened, and a puzzle in her brain began to put itself together. Sister… ask her… Odelia snapped her fingers.  
  
"That's it! I'll ask Odette!" Odelia raced to the Hufflepuff table, Kira and Liam in tow, and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw her sister chatting with her ever-present friends. "Odette!"  
  
Odette smiled, looking surprised. "Hey Odelia. Everything all right?" Hair in a ponytail and turtleneck peeking from under her robes, she radiated the easygoing cheer that Odelia envied so.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine," Odelia replied hastily, "But I really need to know the way to the Charms classroom." Nervously, she tucked a quill behind her ear and then pulled it out again, twirling the feather rapidly between her fingers. Odette nodded obligingly and plucked the quill from Odelia, pursing her lips as she scrawled something on a piece of parchment. She then handed said parchment and quill to her sister.  
  
"There, that should be clear enough. Hurry on the staircase; your feet will stick to it if you stand in one spot too long. And watch out for Peeves." Odette grimaced while mentioning the poltergeist.  
  
Kira grinned wickedly. "Oh, somehow I don't think Peeves will bother us." Odelia and Liam laughed to themselves.  
  
"Come on," Odelia urged, "Let's get to class." With a quick inspection of Odette's directions she dashed off, with her friends - for she knew somehow that they were her friends - following.  
  
--  
  
  
Next up: Charms with the Slytherins, and the results of McGonagall's mistake. Liam recounts the joys of having a room to himself. Odelia's wand is explained. Ignatius reappears, as does Selena. 


	5. Subjectivity

Omninihil, Chapter 5 - Subjectivity  
  
Dedicated to the little kid with the stuffed giraffe.  
  
  
  
Kira was the first to enter the Charms classroom. She stopped short when she reached the threshold, leaving Odelia and Liam to look over her shoulders. Odelia muffled a sigh; after all of the pre-class panic, the Omninihils were early. The only other people in the room were a tall, dark-haired boy already seated at a desk and a tiny man with a look of enthusiasm on his face.  
  
"Oh, do come in," the latter chattered. "I'm so eager to meet all of my new students. I'm Professor Flitwick, by the way, and you're - oh!" His white eyebrows shot upward. "You must be the Omninihils!" He trotted towards the trio of students, reaching out a short arm to shake Kira's hand. "How very exciting." The silent boy turned for a moment toward Professor Flitwick with a look of disgust, ran his fingers through his wavy hair, and rested his elbows on his desk, replacing his head in his hands.  
  
Kira gazed down at the Professor, looking distinctly nervous at the wizard's exhilaration. "Hi," she managed. This thrilled Flitwick even more.  
  
"What a sweet child! You know, you remind me of my granddaughter. You don't know a Lotus Flitwick, do you? Of course you don't; she lives in Tibet. Here, come find a desk…" Gesturing wildly, he led the group to the front of the room, somehow managing not to trip over his robes. "You sit here, and you there, and you right here… there!" Before they knew it, the Omninihils were lined up in a row - Liam, then Kira, and Odelia sitting beside Tall Boy, who pretended she wasn't there.  
  
Odelia arranged her books, parchment and quills on her desk as several other students - Slytherins, Odelia remembered from her schedule - trooped in, Flitwick beaming blissfully at them. They seated themselves behind the Omninihils and Tall Boy. Kira looked rather uneasy at the prospect of people staring at the back of her head; Liam began doing origami with a piece of parchment. After a few moments passed with no more students entering, Flitwick cleared his throat.  
  
"Well, then. Everyone here?" Silence greeted his inquiry.  
  
"Everyone who isn't hear, raise your hand," Odelia suggested. Her classmates snorted or giggled at this; Tall Boy groaned.  
  
Flitwick chuckled merrily. "That's a good one, indeed it is. I suppose I'll have to call roll then." He consulted a roll of parchment. "Edward Berry?"  
  
"Here."  
  
"Wallace Cunningham… Lucinda Engle…" He then came to "Garland Fairfax," and Tall Boy raised his head to face the Professor. Odelia noticed that the young wizard had a thin nose and languid yellow-green eyes.  
  
"My name is Fairfax Garland." He enunciated each syllable with slow and painful accuracy. "Professor McGonagall made an error during the Sorting." After forcing Professor Flitwick to break eye contact, Fairfax let his head droop again, as if the effort of speaking were too much to bear. Odelia was intrigued; she had never encountered anyone with such mannerisms.  
  
"Uh, right then. I'll correct that." With a somewhat less enthusiastic smile, Flitwick continued down the list of Slytherins and then Omninihils. As he did this, Odelia scribbled, "That must have been embarrassing" on a piece of parchment and slid it onto Fairfax's desk with the tip of her wand. Watching out of the corner of her eye, she watched Fairfax raise a chilled eyebrow, brush his quill against his chin, and write something under Odelia's words. The witch moved her hand nonchalantly toward the left side of her desk and felt the parchment being pushed under her pinky finger.  
  
A downward flick of her eye showed Fairfax's message, written in neat jade script. "Yes. So?" Odelia shrugged her left shoulder and returned her attention to Flitwick.  
  
"Does anyone here have a wand that specializes in Charms?" the little man asked brightly. Liam grudgingly raised his hand, as did Helen Morrow and Wallace Cunningham. "Excellent, excellent."  
  
"Mine's good for Transfiguration," Kira whispered to Odelia.  
  
"I don't know what mine's for. I inherited it," Odelia muttered back, gazing contemplatively at the length of white pine. A small ball of parchment landed on her desk, and she hastily unwrapped it to see, written in the familiar green ink, "I thought each person's wand only worked for that person."  
  
Odelia continued, in a slightly louder voice, "After my great-aunt died, all of my cousins and such tried her wand out. It didn't work for anyone until I made sparkly bubbles come out of it." As she spoke, she folded the parchment into a little box and decorated the sides with swirls of ink. Then she flicked her finger at it, sending it skittering back toward Fairfax.  
  
"Sparkly bubbles? That's cool," responded Kira. "A green spiral thing came out of mine. I thought it was a snake at first and I dropped the wand." Her face reddened at the memory.  
  
"Confetti came out of mine," Liam added. Professor Flitwick glanced at the three Omninihils with a surprisingly suspicious expression on his normally benevolent face, and they wisely fell silent.  
  
"The Levitating Charm is really quite simple; just concentrate on the way you wave your wand. Keep your wrist loose and your fingers tight, and let the wand /swish/. Here, try it." At Flitwick's command, the students dutifully swished. "Yes, yes, that's right! Very good, Kira! Put some energy into it, Fairfax! Oh, very nice, Helen! No, Odelia, it's not a conductor's baton. Liam, keep that wrist loose - that's better." He bustled about the room, looking extremely pleased. After circling the room counter-clockwise twice and clockwise once, he returned to his desk.  
  
"Now you are ready to try the charm." The tone of his voice conveyed that this was a great honor. "Put your quill in front of you, point your wand at it, and repeat after me. Wingardium Leviosa!" Chaos ensued. Liam's feather went flying to the back of the room, where it nestled in Donovan Harper's hair. Kira's began to circle her wand like a miniature tornado. Fairfax induced his quill to rise a few centimeters, where it determinedly stayed suspended in the air despite his efforts to tug on it.  
  
Odelia watched carefully, forehead creased in a frown, as her own quill levitated slowly. One centimeter, two, three - she felt her eyes getting tired but had a feeling that the feather would fall if she looked away. Four, five, six… the plume pushed its way through the air. Odelia held her breath and held her wand in a trembling hand. Seven, eight, nine. The feather hovered for a moment and drifted gracefully back to the desk.  
  
"Nice job," commented Flitwick with a nod of approval. Most of the students had done better on their second tries. Liam and Helen Morrow were urging their feathers upward - both were close to the ceiling - to see whose would go higher, and Fairfax had gotten his feather to move one centimeter upwards.  
  
Odelia turned to Kira, whose feather had calmed down slightly. "Didn't know these things had minds of their own," muttered the redhead, watching her quill turn cartwheels. "I'll think twice next time I pull one apart when I'm bored…" Her floating feather immediately tried to poke itself up her nose. "Aaah! Help!" Odelia moved two fingers like pincers and firmly pulled the feather away from her friend.  
  
"Don't say things like that around an animate object," she advised. "You never know what ideas it might get into its head - I mean its mind - or whatever." Turning to her own quill, she touched her fingertip to the end of her wand for good luck and attempted the levitation spell again.  
  
--  
  
By the time class was over, each student had performed the levitation charm successfully. Odelia managed to float her feather twelve centimeters, nothing extraordinary but perfectly respectable for a first try. Liam and Helen declared a truce when both of their quills reached the ceiling, and the mysterious Fairfax rested his arm on his still-levitating feather and spent the remainder of the class staring off into space.  
  
The next class was Herbology, held in a greenhouse and taught by a no-nonsense witch called Professor Sprout, who was also Head of Hufflepuff. When the Omninihils entered the warm green space, Professor Sprout's face lit up at the sight of Odelia.  
  
"You must be Odette's sister!" she exclaimed with a gesture of welcome. "I've heard all about you."  
  
"I'm sure you have," Odelia managed, smiling politely with her fists clenched inside her pockets. "Odette talks about you too." Professor Sprout seemed pleased at this and guided Odelia, Liam and Kira to a table with three other students.  
  
"Hi," smiled a wide-eyed girl with her hair in two braids. "I'm Iris Brightling. Are you the Omninihils?"  
  
"We're famous," Liam joked.  
  
"Notorious," corrected Odelia.  
  
"Elevated to the status of legends," was Kira's contribution.  
  
A gracefully large boy with hands that looked as if they played an instrument tilted his head toward the notorious Omninihils. "Do you always complete each other's sentences?" The remaining student, a boy whose hat obscured his face, laughed.  
  
"No, not normally," Odelia replied. "What's your name?"  
  
"I'm Robert Axle," explained the boy with the hat, "And he's Devin Nero." He indicated the bigger boy. "We're in Hufflepuff; Iris is a Gryffindor."  
  
"Iris can speak for herself, Robert," Iris interjected. "What are your names?"  
  
"Liam Flynn, Kira Sellers and Odelia Delwin." Liam took the liberty of introducing his housemates. "Guess which one I am."  
  
"Odelia," decided Robert, and narrowly avoided being hit with Liam's textbook.  
  
"No, she's Odelia, right?" Devin gestured (he didn't point; Odelia figured that his parents were similar to her own) at Odelia. She smiled, bemused.  
  
"Spot on," she assured. "How'd you know?"  
  
The tips of Devin's ears turned red. "I, uh, met your sister - Odette." He spoke Odette's name as if it were poetry. "You kind of look alike, except - except she's older." The redness crept down the boy's ears, threatening to overwhelm his face.  
  
Liam sniggered unabashedly. "You'd better watch out, Odelia; if he can't go with your sister you might be his second choice."  
  
Odelia swiftly jammed the corner of her textbook into Liam's stomach. "No I won't; I'll do that to him if that happens. I'm never going to be anyone's second choice." She bit out the last two words harshly. "Got it?"  
  
"Got it," replied Liam, rubbing his stomach.  
  
After a few more minutes of idleness, Professor Sprout addressed the class from the middle of the greenhouse. "Herbology is an often under appreciated branch of magic, but magical plants and herbs have saved thousands of lives and are found in a great many potions. Much of the work we'll be doing in this class will be hands-on, which I hope will be fun, but I expect you to treat these plants with respect and caution. Understood?" The class murmured assent. "Good. For your first assignment, you'll be working in small groups to collect seeds from the Nipping Night-Bloom. Use pincers; they will bite."  
  
"Why are we collecting the seeds?" queried Iris hesitantly.  
  
"Very good question, Iris," replied Sprout. Odelia wondered if the Professor favored students named after plants. "The seeds of the Nipping Night-Bloom are very spicy and one of the main ingredients in Pepper-Up Potion. Many of the fruits of our lessons-" ("No pun intended," Odelia muttered) "- will be used to assist Madam Pomfrey in the Infirmary."  
  
By unspoken consent, the three Omninihils worked with Iris, Devin and Robert. Robert waved his hat at the plant to distract it while Kira and Devin held it still and Odelia used the pincers to meticulously pluck each seed. Liam and Iris organized the seeds into neat piles and speculated as to how long it would take for the plant to get Robert's hat.  
  
"This is so much better than maths," Kira declared, smiling benevolently at the plant that was attempting to bite her.  
  
"Yeah," agreed Robert, "This place is the best - the food tastes like real food instead of cardboard. But I wish the castle had some of those statue things on it - what are they called again? Gargles?"  
  
Odelia stifled a giggle, causing her to drop a seed. "I think you mean gargoyles," she corrected, rescuing the kernel.  
  
"Them too," amended Robert.  
  
"I see your eyes of hazel glow brighter than the stars… more beautiful than Venus, and more ruthless than cold Mars…" muttered Devin.  
  
"Huh?" Liam shot Devin an "are you crazy?" look.  
  
Devin grinned nervously. "Oh, sorry. Just thinking out loud. I do that sometimes. Do you ever do that? I've heard that lots of people do…"  
  
"Keep your mind on the job and off Odelia's sister," instructed Kira. Devin meekly complied.  
  
The class was over after what seemed like a short time; joking and collecting seeds was more fun than making feathers levitate. Iris and the other Gryffindors joined the Omninihils in traveling to the Transfiguration classroom back inside Hogwarts.  
  
Professor McGonagall, the stern-looking witch from the Sorting, awaited the class at the front of her room. Odelia sat next to Liam and Nora Andrews, a Gryffindor, letting her mind wander as McGonagall gave a speech on the importance and difficulty of Transfiguration. Odelia smiled slightly, noticing that each teacher considered his or her own subject the most important.  
  
"Just do your best; few students manage to turn it completely into a needle on the first day," McGonagall finished, passing matches around.  
  
"Um, are we authorized to have matches in school?" a Gryffindor boy asked nervously.  
  
"Well, nobody complains about Quidditch matches," Odelia quipped. A dangerous look from McGonagall quelled the students, and Odelia set to work on her match. She glanced from it to her wand and back again. Needle; needle… what was the difference between a match and a needle? A needle was silver. Odelia touched her wand to the match, willing the later to become the same silvery tint as the former. Slowly the brown wood turned gray, then argentine.  
  
Good match. Odelia held the object in her left hand, wand still gripped in her right. Now it had to be heavier, more solid. Pack those molecules together, she begged the match. Change your elemental makeup. This took longer, but she could feel the match growing heavier in her hand. Smooth, she instructed, smooth and shiny. Command flowed from her mind to her arm to her hand to her wand to the match. Metal, metal… she remembered her mother's pep talk to Odette before the older girl's first year at Hogwarts.  
  
"Show your mettle!" Mara Delwin had coached.  
  
Metal. Mettle. Show your metal. Odelia's mind began to merge with her wand; needle metal silver pointy solid shiny cold sharp change change change!  
  
"What," Professor McGonagall demanded, "Is that?" For a moment Odelia feared that she herself was being addressed, but it turned out that McGonagall was speaking to Kira. The curly-tressed witch drew back from the teacher's gaze. On Kira's desk was a fully Transfigured needle, but it was a wooden knitting needle.  
  
"Um, sorry," Kira stuttered. "I, well, my dad knits, see, and when you said a needle, I thought of a knitting needle, not on purpose you know but it just happened."  
  
"Your dad knits?" Meadow Yule, a girl with wispy hair and a voice to match, asked incredulously. A few other students chuckled. Kira turned to face them with a rare fire in her eyes.  
  
"Yeah," she affirmed, daring anyone to respond, "He knits."  
  
"Cool," sighed Meadow enviously. "I wish my da did something besides Transfiguring buttons all day."  
  
"As much as I'm sure this is helping you bond, I'm afraid I must request that you stay on task," McGonagall reminded. Odelia didn't need a second command; the challenge of changing one thing to another with pure will was like nothing she'd encountered before. By the time class was over, she had a pointy piece of metallic silvery wood. "Not bad," commented McGonagall; Odelia beamed.  
  
"Yes!" Liam exclaimed as he walked out the door, "Lunch!" Odelia rolled her eyes and did a McGonagall impression.  
  
"If you paid the same attention to your lessons as you pay your meals," she lectured, "You could be a very promising student."  
  
"I'd rather eat, thanks," replied Liam.  
  
--  
  
I know I promised Ignatius and Selena in this chapter, but it just didn't work with the schedule. I promise they'll be in chapter six, as will Aura. A plot will emerge eventually. 


	6. And This Was Odd Because

  
Omninihil, Chapter Six - And This Was Odd Because  
  
Dedicated to the baby mice that had to endure my little brother petting them.  
  
  
Odelia rushed her friends through lunch.  
  
"Look," Liam grumbled, "I have a hard enough time finding non-meat food, let alone actually eating. What's the big hurry?"  
  
Odelia tore off a piece of a roll and began to butter it. "I want to stop by the gamekeeper's cabin and visit Aura before Potions. We absolutely can't be late to Potions; Professor Snape is stricter than McGonagall except to Slytherins." She paused a split second to breathe and then took a big bite of bread.  
  
"Well, why do we have to come too? You hurry through lunch and make yourself sick, I take my time and digest my food properly, and everyone's happy." Liam snatched the remaining roll; Kira glared at him and selected a potato instead. Odelia waited until she'd swallowed her food to speak.  
  
"I can't wander around the grounds alone; Odette's spurned admirers will take me hostage until she agrees to go out with them. Then again, she can't go out with all of them; I guess it'd be just one admirer and some of his friends." Having lived with Odette for eleven years, Odelia found this a credible excuse, but Liam and Kira didn't.  
  
"What is it with your sister anyway?" Kira craned her neck to glance at the Hufflepuff table, where Devin Nero was staring hopelessly at Odette. "Everyone acts like she's perfect or something."  
  
"Is she part-Veela?" Liam chimed in. Odelia shook her head in disgust as she observed the third year Dorian Sloan, a starry-eyed Ravenclaw dreamer who gazed at Odette with a look of sorrowful resignation.  
  
"That's the worst part," the younger Delwin sister expressed bitterly. "It's all real. She barely even wears makeup. She's just one of those naturally perfect people." Odelia lowered her voice to a murmur. "I can't stand it. I can't stand /her/. And it makes me hate myself." Only her strict training kept her shoulders from slumping.  
  
Kira leaned forward and patted Odelia's shoulder. "She'll probably grow up to be really ugly. Lots of good-looking kids do."  
  
"And you've got to admit," Liam added, "It's awfully funny to see all those boys mooning over her." He indulged himself in a snide chuckle over an older Hufflepuff boy who handed Odette an apple with a charming smile as a bonus.  
  
"I don't know," Odelia replied with a sigh. "I worry about some of them. Especially Dorian - he's the boy over there. He never tries to flirt with her or anything, just looks at her with those sad, sad eyes. I'm afraid he's in love."  
  
Liam snorted. "Thirteen-year-olds don't fall in love." Kira looked as if she would beg to differ, but apparently decided not to pursue the subject. Odelia merely shrugged.  
  
"Be that as it may, I worry. Maybe I could convince Odette to take an Ugliness Potion for the good of the community." Her face took on a hopeful expression. "She might do it; she's horribly nice."  
  
Kira grinned. "You can always try."  
  
Although the Omninihils didn't finish lunch as early as Odelia had hoped, she judged that they would have time to pay a quick visit to Aura. After gathering textbooks and supplies, she barreled down the front stairs with Kira and Liam following at a more leisurely pace. They proved to be wiser; Odelia tripped on the third-from-last step and tumbled ungracefully to the ground in a flurry of swirling robes.   
  
Kira and Liam hurried to help her up, but she brushed them aside and looked around quickly to make sure no one had seen her literal faux pas. As luck would have it, there was only one observer: Fairfax Garland, who was leaning up against a nearby tree. His serene gaze betrayed no amusement, or any other emotion for that matter. Odelia pretended she hadn't seen him and hurried along, urging her friends on.  
  
Hagrid's cabin was near the greenhouse where Herbology had been taught. It was a small edifice and Odelia felt a brief pang of anxiety as she wondered how Aura was faring. She rapped rather more sharply than she had intended on the door and took a moment to soothe her smarting knuckles. "Come in!" called a voice from inside; Odelia's unease increased when she noticed that the voice lacked Hagrid's distinctive accent. She shoved the door open immediately and burst into the cabin, wand in hand.  
  
"Whoa!" Ignatius Anastas, who was sitting on the cabin floor with Aura's head in his lap, put his hands up defensively. "Having a bad day?" Odelia lowered her wand with a sheepish grin.  
  
"Oh, sorry." She glared to silence Kira and Liam, who were snorting behind her. "I noticed that you weren't Hagrid-"  
  
"Observant, isn't she?" remarked Liam.  
  
"Quiet, Mr. Elbow-in-the-mashed-potatoes. And I knew Aura was in here, and I guess I got defensive…" she shrugged one shoulder and dropped to her knees, scratching behind Aura's ears. "You know the rest."  
  
"Ooh, your Kneazle's gorgeous," gushed Kira, joining Odelia and Ignatius. Aura purred smugly, clearly pleased at all of the attention. Liam came forward to let Aura sniff his hand.  
  
"Yeah," Odelia agreed fondly, "she makes friends wherever she goes. Speaking of which, where's Hagrid?" There was no sign of the friendly half-giant.  
  
"He went to teach a class," explained Ignatius. "Told me I could stay here with your Kneazle. He really admires her; you should've seen the way he lets her chew on his knuckles."  
  
Odelia chuckled. "I'm glad they're getting on well. I was a little worried at first; she likes a lot of attention." Aura rolled over and tilted her head so that Ignatius could scratch her chin. "I think she likes you. That's a compliment, you know; Kneazles are supposed to be able to judge character."  
  
"Yeah, I know," Ignatius replied, his eyes still on the indolent feline. "My grandmother has one."  
  
"It must be so great to have magical pets." Kira looked wistfully at Aura. "I have rabbits at home, but…"  
  
"I have a Fwooper," Liam volunteered quickly. Odelia was about to speak about why it was sad that Fwoopers had to be silenced when the door banged open to admit Hagrid.  
  
"'Ello, 'Nashus!" The gargantuan beamed jovially as he shut the door behind him. "And little Odelia! Come ter visit yer Kneazle?" Odelia nodded and let Aura's whiskers tickle the back of her hand.  
  
"Yeah. These are my friends Liam and Kira," she gestured at each of them, "they're in Omninihil too." Aura stood and wove her way to Hagrid, twining around his tree trunk-like legs in a sign of welcome.  
  
"Ah, right, yeh all got Sorted into that new House," Hagrid reminded himself, a puzzled expression upon his honest face. "Change everything, it will."  
  
"Talking like Yoda, you are," Kira muttered, but Hagrid didn't seem to notice the words spoken at a volume so much lower than his own. Liam, Ignatius and Odelia frowned in bemusement. Odelia's eyes flickered to her pocket watch.  
  
"Potions time!" she yelped, startling everyone, including Aura. Ignatius instantly leapt to his feet and dashed out the door. "We have to get to class or Professor Snape will make us wish we were never born," Odelia explained to Hagrid in a rush. With a final pat of Aura's head, she gestured to Liam and Kira before beginning the jog back to Hogwarts.  
  
Robes billowing in the breeze and hair streaming behind her, Odelia could hear the footsteps of her fellow Omninihils. She scanned the area for Ignatius as well, but he was nowhere in sight. He must be a fast runner, Odelia mused as she took a flying leap over a stone. She quickly developed a stitch in her side, but took the steps to the building two at a time anyway. Through the Great Hall, down the stairs, into the dungeons with gasping breaths.  
  
--  
  
Odelia stopped at the door, certain that she would find the sinister-looking Snape scowling at her. By some rare act of grace, the professor was late to class and only the Slytherins and Ravenclaws watched, mildly interested, as the three tardy students entered the bleak room.  
  
Ignatius was seated, composed and not in the least disheveled, next to (Odelia winced) Selena. The latter smiled saccharinely at the Omninihils and poked Ignatius in the ribs. Ignatius looked at her questioningly and she glanced again at the Omninihils. Ignatius's normally benign expression settled into a sneer.  
  
"So here we have the Omninihils, the All-Nothings. The name fits, actually, you're all a bunch of nothings." He sniggered unpleasantly as Selena's smile grew wider; a few scattered students laughed uncertainly. Odelia felt such confusion that she only stared, hurt, at the boy she had considered at least civil. Ignatius laughed harder, his face twisting, at Odelia's expression.  
  
Liam glared in disgust at the two Ravenclaws, and Kira clenched her fists although her face remained serene. Odelia sat at the nearest desk and rallied herself enough for a retort, though hardly up to par with her usual ones. "You've got a problem with Omninihil?" She shaped her own face into the cold mask her mother wore when angry. A detached part of her noted that Fairfax Garland watched the scene intently from a corner.  
  
Ignatius shrugged coolly. "Me? A problem? I'm not the one who couldn't fit into any of the proper Houses. I would say it's certain other members of this room who have problems."  
  
"There's nothing wrong with being different," Odelia snapped instantly. All of her reflexes were responding now. "It's the different people who make the world different, and almost every great person was misunderstood during childhood. The Muggle scientist Albert Einstein was even expelled from school."  
  
"Several times," added Fairfax in a monotone. "And he played the violin, and he was Jewish."  
  
Fairfax's enlightening remarks were lost on Ignatius, who merely sneered. "If you'd like to get yourself expelled, Odelia," (he managed to make her name sound like an insult), "I'm sure the school will be quite willing to oblige you."  
  
"And if I'd like to be treated with civility, will /you/ be willing to oblige me?" Odelia was somehow standing again, one hand on her hip and the other in her pocket, clutching her wand. Small and outspoken, she was no stranger to conflict and had full confidence in her ability to defeat Ignatius in a verbal battle.  
  
"Civility," asserted Ignatius with another maddening shrug, "is given to those who deserve it." That boy, Odelia decided, was going to rue the day he was stupid enough to insult her. He was going to pay. Right now, in fact, or as soon as that girl who had just stood up got out of the way…  
  
The girl in question was speaking sharply to Ignatius. "Cut it out, would you? You've never even met these people and you're insulting them the minute they get in the room." Flicking a lock of hair out of her way, she sauntered over to the Omninihils. Another girl with purple ribbons in her light brown hair followed.  
  
"Twits will be twits," concluded the first girl. "You seem like the sorts who've figured that out." Startling blue eyes smiled in a cocoa-tinted face. "I'm Linnet Hamilton, by the way, and my partner in crime here is Hyacinth Starling." Hyacinth, a smoke-eyed girl with a willowy form, half-grinned and dropped a curtsey.  
  
"We're history in the making," explained the second witch cryptically as her ribbons, fluttering from the curtsey, calmed down. Odelia could recognize question-fishing when she heard it and said nothing, but Kira had no scruples about doing what the mysterious duo wanted her to.  
  
"How are you going to make history?" she enquired, pulling her glasses from the pocket of her robes.  
  
"That's for us to know…" Hyacinth began in a low voice, but Linnet shushed her friend.  
  
"Don't bother with the mystery stuff, Hy. Hogwarts School has a proud tradition of fearless, clever pranksters," her voice dropped to a whisper, "and the two of us intend to take that tradition to new heights!" A grin of anticipatory triumph lit Linnet's face, and Hyacinth struck a dramatic pose.  
  
"Prepare, my friends," continued Hyacinth, "for the most glorious pranks ever pulled off. We, the Birds - Linnet and Starling, you know - shall usher in a shining new era of mischief."  
  
"Cool," murmured Liam with a tone akin to reverence.  
  
"Can't wait to see," Kira added, looking more confident than usual as a result of the Birds' charismatic speech. Odelia was deep in thought. A duo of pranksters could prove very useful indeed.  
  
"Don't suppose you could give our friend Ignatius a bit of a surprise?" queried Odelia sotto voce.  
  
"I think we could fit him into our schedule," mused Linnet with the sweetest of smiles.  
  
"As soon as we snare that supercilious snob, Selena," Hyacinth said, suffusing her speech with what seemed suspiciously like a smirk - Stop alliterating! Odelia told her brain. After all, she'd practically been promised her nemeses' heads on a platter.  
  
"Better and better," she assured the Birds blissfully. It was on this note that Professor Snape swished into the room.  
  
The student body of Hogwarts had a reason to fear the man, Odelia decided, as the Professor in question stalked to his desk and turned, sharply, to scrutinize the students with maliciously glittering black eyes. With his hooked nose and relentless stare, he could easily have been a vulture in a past life. When he breathed, he seemed to suck all of the chatter and noise out of the room. After a moment of silence, the greasy wizard spoke in a low, menacing voice.  
  
"So." Snape's forceful diction reminded Odelia slightly of Fairfax. A jittery young wizard who Odelia vaguely recognized as Erik So of Ravenclaw jerked to attention, attempting to fix his slightly disheveled robes and hair surreptitiously.  
  
"Yes?" Erik responded, sounding as though he wanted to stutter but was keeping himself from doing so through sheer willpower. Snape's head swiveled like that of an owl to lock eyes with the recalcitrant student.  
  
"'Yes'?" If the teacher's glaring was intimidating before, it now increased tenfold. "What are you babbling about, boy?"  
  
Erik clutched his quill tightly, barely maintaining eye contact with Snape. "That's my name. Erik So. I thought you were talking to me." Several of the braver students chuckled, but Snape whirled to face the rest of the class and all was silent once more. Erik took a deep breath during his momentary reprieve, but Snape had not forgotten him.  
  
"You thought I was talking to you," the professor repeated. Odelia winced, pitying Erik and envying Snape his amazing sarcasm. "Of course, being the presumptuous child you are, you assumed that I would switch the alphabet around so that you were first on the roll call." Snape's tone was such that Odelia wondered how long he could use such irony without exploding into a roar. Erik shook his head vehemently and opened his mouth to speak, but Snape extended his neck toward the students in a motion reminiscent of a bird of prey. "Don't talk back or I'll take ten points from Ravenclaw before you can speak three foolish words."  
  
Erik, to his credit, remained stoic and nodded coldly. Odelia found herself impressed by both antagonists and took mental notes for use in future conflicts. Out of the corner of her eye she glimpsed her housemates' reactions to Snape; Kira's eyes were wide behind her green-rimmed glasses and Liam looked disgruntled.  
  
"Since you're all so /eager/ to begin…" Snape oozed, "Anastas!" The ooze abruptly became a militant rap.  
  
"Here!" replied Ignatius instantly.  
  
"Raising your hand will suffice, Mr. Anastas, though I've no doubt you find your own voice pleasing," Snape sneered in a glacial tone.   
  
Ignatius turned red and lowered his head, causing locks of hair to fall in his eyes and looking far from menacing. Odelia was so pleased with this that she beamed at Snape, rays of sunlight that would have melted Snape's frozen barriers if emotions followed the laws of physics. As everyone ought to know, they don't.  
  
"What are you doing, Miss Delwin?" The surly professor's eyes narrowed as he swiveled from Ignatius to Odelia, who could see Selena smirking smugly.  
  
"Just smiling, sir," Odelia responded, carefully treading the coating of ice over the inferno. "I didn't mean any disrespect." The line between courtesy and subservience is blurred, and Odelia struggled to keep her balance.  
  
"Good intentions, I see," reflected Snape, a glimmer of amusement - benevolent or cruel? - in his eyes. "Don't let them pave any roads or you'll find yourself in trouble." Odelia nodded silently, unsure of how to take the advice but grateful that it wasn't anything more severe.  
  
Roll call continued with no more incidents; Odelia was relieved to find that someone - probably Professor Flitwick - had informed Snape of Fairfax's true name. Although, she thought, an argument between those two would really be something. Snape moved through the list of names slowly and detachedly. Odelia assumed that he was stalling to avoid actual teaching, especially when he launched into a long and surprisingly poetic speech about the importance of Potions.  
  
Every class is the most important, or the most challenging, or the most under-appreciated, Odelia mused sardonically. These professors, with the exception of Lupin, had apparently bought a pack of one-way tickets for an ego trip. Still, Snape's metaphors and vocabulary were distinguished. Potions class was hardly the most lyrical of topics. Odelia stifled a giggle as she decided that Devin Nero could learn a lot from Snape.  
  
Odelia was relieved when the requisite speech was over and the actual lesson began; she wasn't sure how long she would be able to maintain the façade of polite interest. Snape instructed the class to partner up in a manner that would have better suited the order "Impale yourselves with a bicorn horn." The normal chaos that would have ensued was tempered by Snape's ominous presence - students scrambled more quietly than usual to seek a friendly face.  
  
Glancing subtly at Liam and Kira, Odelia was unsure of how to split the trio. Any combination would leave one of them out in the cold. Most of the other students were drawn to a working companion as north pole to south: Hyacinth and Linnet, Ignatius and Selena, Cynthia Bagshot with Lana Verde, Samuel Swenson and Helen Morrow, Edward Berry and Donovan Harper… Fairfax was asking Snape something in a harsh whisper, probably begging permission to refrain from lowering himself to his peers' level. In a sudden rush of kindness, Odelia hefted her books and paced swiftly to Erik So.  
  
"Mind if I work with you?" the martyr requested. Erik, looking slightly surprised, nodded and cleared a workspace on his desk. Odelia noticed, among the papers pushed aside, a few sheets with what looked like floor plans of buildings. "Did you draw those?" she ventured with a non-pointing gesture.  
  
"Yeah, while Dracula there was singing the glory of Potions," Erik replied in a hushed voice. "I like designing buildings in my spare time," he added by way of explanation.  
  
Odelia nodded slowly and traced a finger over the wall of a blueprint. "They're good. Maybe you could go into architecture." Erik only had time to shrug before Snapula himself passed their desk and, with claw-like fingers, deposited the ingredients for a Waterproofing Potion. He took a split-second to shoot them a warning look, and Odelia felt her stomach flutter with the fear that he had overheard her and Erik talking. If such was the case, he showed no further sign of it and continued his circuit.  
  
"Good grief." Odelia exhaled sharply in relief. "I don't usually let people intimidate me, but he's like some villain out of a fairy tale." Dancing in front of her eyes was the mark of Snape's cold stare, like the afterimage of a light bulb.  
  
"He's just a prick on a power high," Erik declared with startling boldness. "He can't do anything to you unless you let him by cowering and all."  
  
"Easier said than done, oh great hero," his partner replied with gentle sarcasm. Odelia remembered how nervous Erik had been at the beginning of class; confronting Snape seemed to have increased the boy's confidence.  
  
Erik only shrugged and began dexterously sorting the pile of ingredients. "If I can do it, you can do it; I'm not the bravest person in the world and you seem pretty tough. Gave that Ignatius what he deserved."  
  
Flattery, when sincere, pleased sibling-shadowed Odelia to the highest degree, and she chopped her spicy-scented herbs with enthusiasm. "You don't think Omninihil is some sort of reject house then?" she queried, more than a hint of mischief in her tone.  
  
A shake of Erik's head sent strands of hair as straight as Odelia's own fluttering. "My cousin says nature doesn't create rejects; people do. And the Sorting Hat isn't a person." At this bit of wisdom, Odelia smiled and tipped the shreds of herbs into her cauldron, causing a jet of hot water to squirt onto her hand.  
  
"Ow!" she yelped. Snape abruptly turned from his position, where he was scrutinizing the Birds, with a questioning glare; Odelia busied herself with uncorking a vial of plant extract. She would, of course, stand up to Snape when she needed to do so, but what was the use of inviting trouble?  
  
The rest of the period passed quickly enough in the two-tone experience of whispered conversations hidden beneath the convenient charade of Potions making. By the end of the lesson, all of the students had completed a Waterproofing potion within a varying range of success. Helen Morrow suggested using the potions to protect the pupils' shoes from wet weather, and Snape, after a moment spent in contemplation of the idea's possible flaws, agreed gruffly - "But please control your instinctual clumsiness when it comes to my classroom floor."   
  
Odelia smeared the deep blue potion, which smelled like ice-coated diamonds, onto her wand. As soon as it touched the wooden surface all traces of the cobalt substance vanished. The same phenomenon occurred on Erik's boots and folder, in which he kept his drawings. "See you in Defense Against the Dark Arts," Odelia muttered to her newest friend before leaving the room, under Snape's watchful eye, with Liam and Kira.  
  
--  
  
There was no doubt about it: History of Magic was boring. The textbook was written in a dry, pompous tone, and the lesson consisted of listening (or pretending to listen) to the Professor give lectures on historical events, which he described in such a stark manner that all story elements were eradicated. Even the Professor's looks and demeanor afforded no amusement; despite being a ghost, Professor Binns was devoid of all personality and interest in his surroundings. Odelia found herself wishing that the Omninihils shared the class with the less predictable Gryffindors or Slytherins; even arrogant Ignatius would relieve the monotony.  
  
Kira had folded a piece of parchment into a square-like shape and was intently inscribing phrases on it, looking the ideal student with her serious face behind oval-shaped spectacles. When Odelia looked over her friend's shoulder, Kira shooed the other girl away. Deprived of material for observation, Odelia stared in utter ennui at her desk.  
  
"Pick a color," Kira hissed suddenly. Odelia raised an eyebrow; the curly-locked witch was supporting her paper sculpture on her thumbs and forefingers. The surface of the object was divided into four squares, each a different color. Odelia chose orange - close to salmon, an Omninihil color. "O-R-A-N-G-E," muttered Kira, opening and closing folds in the origami as if it were a bird opening its beak. After "E," she opened the "beak" to reveal four more squares, each with a number. "Pick one."  
  
Odelia was rather confused at this point, but picked three, the number of students in Omninihil. Kira twitched her fingers three times and unfolded a flap of the paper. Beneath the flap was a small phrase.  
  
"This is your fortune," Kira explained. "It says… hey, I didn't write this." Odelia craned her neck to see, written in purple ink, "Heed the auracle."  
  
With a blink of her eyelids, Odelia shrugged. "Whoever wrote it couldn't spell. They either meant oracle - you know, a foretelling - or auricle, a part of the heart."  
  
"But I made this thing myself! I wrote in all of the fortunes!" Perplexed, Kira tried to pull open the other flaps, but they couldn't budge. "It's come alive or something! It was only supposed to be a Muggle game." Kira's voice was in danger of rising in panic; Liam made a shushing sound as he examined the fortune-telling piece of paper.  
  
"Well," the young wizard surmised, "Either you used a magic pen, or magic paper, or something weird happened. Here, try it again." Kira repeated the procedure with Liam choosing colors and numbers. The trio waited with breath caught and baited as Kira opened the flap to reveal the fortune. "'There's always a choice,'" read Liam.  
  
Odelia gave a small shudder. "Put it away. It might be dangerous. I know; we'll show it to Lupin." The thought of finding security in a trustworthy adult was comforting, but the cootie-catcher's very presence seemed a threat.   
  
In light of this new menace, the Omninihils could barely get through the rest of History. Kira kept staring at the pocket in which she had put her eerie creation, glasses suddenly making her eyes look large and frightened. Liam repeatedly ran his left hand through his hair. Odelia clenched and unclenched her hands, watching the thin lines of muscle contract and relax. Her emotions, however, all seemed to be contracting at once. It was incomparable relief when the class was finally over and the Omninihils hurried to Lupin's classroom.  
  
A class of fifth-year Ravenclaws was just leaving; Liam flattened himself against the wall at the sight of Tolkien Girl. Odelia made a mental note to ask her friend why he was so wary of the older witch, but all traces of the idea were washed away in the rush to talk to Lupin. Their House Head was standing near the doorway, bidding his class good-bye.  
  
"Professor!" Despite the impoliteness of the gesture, Odelia tugged on Lupin's sleeve to be heard amidst the bustle of students. He looked down and smiled, seeming to take no offense.  
  
"Oh, hello Odelia. Is everything all right?" The professor was remarkably calm for the first day of class, though there were shadows beneath his eyes. Liam and Kira crowded behind Odelia; the worry in their faces made Lupin take on a puzzled expression.  
  
"Something weird happened in History of Magic, and we're worried about it," Liam explained.  
  
"Kira made a cootie-catcher - that's a Muggle toy made out of paper for predicting fortunes - and it started working on its own," Odelia added in a rather unclear clarification. Lupin, however, understood the gist of it and turned to Kira.  
  
"May I see this thing?" he requested quietly; Kira nodded and offered the cootie-catcher for inspection. Indeed, she looked as if she had been relieved of a weight greater than a piece of paper. Lupin turned the object over in his hands, examining the texture of the parchment and the ink. When he tried to unfold it, he was as unsuccessful as the students have been. "Are these predictions in your handwriting?" he inquired of Kira.  
  
"Yes, and the ink is just like mine too," she replied. "But the phrases aren't the ones I wrote at all." She began to twirl a strand of hair around her finger as the first-year Ravenclaws trickled into the classroom. "So is it Dark Magic?"  
  
Lupin frowned slightly at the innocuous-looking toy before shifting his attention to the students. "It seems harmless enough, but I'd better keep it - I'll see if I can perform some studies on it later. Thank you for bringing it to me; I hope you'll do the same thing if you find any other objects behaving strangely." He looked down at them, solemnly, and Odelia tried to analyze his eyes. Was that trust? If so, she would not betray the first adult to treat her as an equal.  
  
As the last Ravenclaws entered the room, the Omninihils seated themselves in front of the Birds and diagonal from Erik. Ignatius and Selena camped in the farthest corner, the former pausing to glare at the Omninihils. Odelia countered this with a sarcastic wave. Lupin moved to the front of the room, standing patiently until all but the most raucous of students were quiet. Cynthia Bagshot glared at the rowdy remainder, who stopped their chattering.  
  
"Thank you, Cynthia," uttered Lupin, suppressing a chuckle. "I'm sure you're all tired since it's the last period of the first day of classes, but I hope you can concentrate for just a little while longer. As you might know, I'm Professor Lupin. This class focuses on studying and protecting oneself from evil creatures and magic, hence the name. I hope you'll never have to use most of the things you learn here, but…" he shrugged. "It's better to be prepared."  
  
A sense of mercy must have been present in Lupin, for he did not launch into a long speech but gave a short explanation of the day's lesson, the Disarming Charm. The students were asked to take turns trying to use the most basic Defense charm on each other; most of them were eager to try.  
  
Odelia clutched her wand and focused on the current of power flowing through her and the mystery core beneath the wand's silky surface. She turned to Kira, who sat beside her. "Ready?" Kira nodded as she held her own wand, slightly nervous. Odelia inhaled deeply and concentrated, causing her taut muscles to tremble. "Expelliarmus!" Through slightly blurred eyes, she viewed Kira's wand wrenching itself from its owner's grip and clattering to the floor.  
  
"Good job," Kira remarked, her mild face surprised and relieved that the spell hadn't been frightening. She retrieved her wand, dusted it off with the hem of her robe. "All right; my turn." Odelia gripped her wand tightly, then loosened her fingers so as not to make Kira's task unreasonably difficult. With a nod, she signaled her friend to try the spell. Kira bit her lower lip and drew her eyebrows together. "Expelliarmus!" The charm was successful.  
  
Odelia had never experienced a sensation quite like this. She truly felt, as the charm's name implied, disarmed, as though she were completely exposed. I never felt like this before I carried a wand, she reminded herself, but it was with shaking hands that she knelt and recovered her wand. "Nice," she told Kira with a trembly smile. "It jumped right out of my hand."  
  
By the end of the class, Odelia had Disarmed a number of classmates and been Disarmed by them in turn, learning to fight the shaky feeling that resulted. Last of all she let Erik practice the charm on her.  
  
"Okay, ready?" Erik stood straight, wand in position. Odelia nodded and decided to try something new. With every muscle coiled, she waited for Erik's cry - "Expelliarmus!" The charm came flying toward Odelia's wand, but she dodged it, causing the spell to knock Ignatius's wand away instead. Ignatius's eyebrows shot upward as he shouted for aid.  
  
"Professor! Professor Lupin!" he called. Lupin hurried over to the protesting boy, who jabbed a finger at Erik in accusation. "He did the charm on me and I didn't say he could!" Lupin turned a questioning gaze toward Erik.  
  
"I'm sorry," Erik explained, "I was aiming for Odelia."  
  
Odelia nodded quickly. "He was practicing it on me. I dodged it." At the last sentence, she couldn't help smiling proudly. "Sorry, Ignatius," she added as an afterthought, sounding polite if not totally sincere.  
  
"Actually, we were going to work on dodging spells next class," Lupin stated. The corners of his eyes crinkled in amusement. "Five points to Omninihil for being a step ahead." Ignatius sputtered in fury, but was cut off by Liam remarking that class time was over. "So it is," Lupin replied. "Good work, all of you; I'll see you tomorrow."  
  
Still grinning at the happy turn of events, Odelia gathered up her supplies and led her friends back to the dormitory to drop off their books before dinner. The satisfaction of one-upping Ignatius almost made her forget the sinister cootie-catcher.  
--  
  
  
Well well, we have the emergence of a Plot. What's up with the cootie-catcher? Why is Ignatius suddenly so mean? How many more boys are going to fall in love with Odette? Keep reading to find out! 


	7. Says Who?

Omninihil  
  
Chapter 7: Says Who?  
  
Author's Notes: The dream sequence toward the end of the chapter is rather scary, but I don't think it's worse than anything in a Disney movie. Sorry this chapter took so long.  
  
  
The Omninihil table was subdued during dinner, a little island of quiet amid the boisterous dramas being played out around the other five tables. Odelia felt strangely detached and empty after the varied stimuli of new classes, new faces and new problems. A small but insistent voice in the back of her head demanded "Now what?" Deprived of an answer, Odelia stared vacantly at the food spread before her. Nothing to eat; the menu consisted of heavy foods, victuals that asked for commitment and enthusiasm. Odelia was not prepared to give either and nibbled impassively at a roll. Liam's behavior was similar, though Odelia suspected that it was due to the lack of vegetarian selection rather than emotional dilemma. Kira, by contrast, became more animated with worry; she twirled her hair, rearranged the food on her plate, scratched a mosquito bite on her arm, and made idle observations of the other students.  
  
"Look, the Birds are going to the staff table," was the latest in a chain of these remarks. At Kira's behest, Odelia glanced toward the area where the teachers were seated. There, sure enough, were Linnet and Hyacinth. The aspiring pranksters appeared to be in earnest discussion with Professor Flitwick.  
  
"What do you suppose they're doing?" Liam muttered, his sparkle-blue eyes never leaving the Ravenclaws, which resulted in him knocking Odelia's glass of pumpkin juice to the side.  
  
"Well, he's their Head of House," Odelia replied without skipping a beat as she rescued her beverage. Setting it in its rightful place, she shrugged one shoulder. "They could have a perfectly innocent reason for talking to him." The three Omninihils looked at each other in split-second silence.  
  
"Nah," they decided in perfect unison. With the knowledge that mischief was about to take place, three pairs of eyes - one hazel, one green-gray and one azure - rested upon the staff table. All there seemed typical, from Dumbledore twinkling at the world to Snape gazing moodily at Lupin, who was sharing a joke with Professor Vera Vector. In contrast to Snape's glower, Flitwick's demeanor was jolly as he listened to Linnet, who appeared to be explaining something. Hyacinth said nothing but nodded emphatically as her right arm stretched backwards and - Odelia restrained herself from gasping - tipped something into Snape's coffee. She then spoke a few words to Flitwick, and both Birds flew the coop, hurrying back to the Ravenclaw table.  
  
"Did you just see what I just saw?" rasped Kira, light brown eyebrows raised so high that they almost disappeared into her hair.  
  
"I saw," Liam affirmed, stealing a roll of bread right from under Odelia's nose. "The question is, did Snape see it? I mean, he had eyes in the back of his head during class today."  
  
Odelia rapped Liam's hand smartly with her wand and took the opportunity to re-appropriate her roll. "I don't think he saw it; he's too busy glaring at Lupin. Odette told me they hate each other. Watch; I think something's going to happen."  
  
A watched pot never boils, and a watched staff table is only slightly more interesting. The Omninihils observed this as Flitwick took out a wizarding photo album and forced Snape to admire the former's grandchildren, much to the latter's disgust and the viewers' amusement. Professor Sprout thumb-wrestled against Professor Olden, who taught Study of Ancient Runes, with Dumbledore as referee. The exuberant Professor Vector tilted her head back in laughter at one of Lupin's remarks, causing the tip of her chestnut braid to fall into McGonagall's mutton. McGonagall enlightened Vector as to what had happened; Vector apologized sheepishly and covered her face in shame until Lupin handed her a napkin for her hair.  
  
Kira winced at the last episode, her face tinged pink with sympathetic mortification. "Poor Professor - what's her name?" ("Vector," Odelia supplied.) "Vector. That must've been so embarrassing."  
  
"Vector?" Liam repeated in disbelief. "She's not the one who got somebody else's hair in her food!" He wrinkled his nose. "Not that mutton is any good anyway." Odelia was about to add her two Knuts when she noticed Snape lift his mug of coffee.  
  
"Look!" was all that Odelia had time to hiss before Snape to a sip and, spluttering, dropped the mug (which shattered on the floor; apparently it hadn't been protected by an Anti-Break Charm). The Potions master continued to cough, choke, and wheeze. Professor Flitwick dropped his photo album, gave a startled squeak and attempted the Heimlich maneuver, much to the laughter of all of the students. Snape, furious and still coughing, shoved Flitwick away and grabbed Professor Vector's glass of pumpkin juice, spilling some of the beverage onto the unfortunate witch's braid in the process.  
  
After downing the entire glass and returning it to its previous user, Snape collapsed into his chair. "Pepper," he gasped gratingly. "Someone had the audacity to put pepper in my coffee!" Though still slumped in his chair, he had regained all of his usual authority, and his eyes practically glowed with fury.  
  
"He recovers nicely," Liam deadpanned, though the effect was marred by the fact that he had to speak loudly over the commotion. Kira and Odelia were still laughing hysterically, as were the majority of the students. Even a few of the teachers, Lupin included, were having a difficult time hiding their amusement, though the unlucky Vector was busy wiping her hair again.  
  
Odelia noted that the Ravenclaw table seemed no more energetic than the others; she surmised from this that the Birds had told no one of their plan. Good strategy, Odelia mused approvingly, then gave herself a mental slap. Odelia Delwin was not supposed to be thinking like a prankster. Then again, the rebel within Odelia argued, why should you let your parents dictate your very thoughts?  
  
"She's looking at me again!" Liam interrupted in a panicked whisper. Odelia cut her reverie short to deal with the situation at hand.  
  
"Who's looking at you?" Odelia followed Liam's gaze to the Ravenclaw table, but couldn't distinguish the exact subject of Liam's fear. A hunch made her enquire, "Tolkien Girl?" Faced with Liam's confusion, she elaborated "The older girl who wears those big boots and the chain around her head?"  
  
Liam confirmed Odelia's intuition with a nod. "Yeah, her. She's Orla Quirke, a Ravenclaw prefect. She's really creepy!" He added a shudder for emphasis.  
  
"What's so creepy about her?" Kira wanted to know. "Her clothes aren't much weirder than most of you magic people's." Gesturing to her robes, she continued, "I mean, look at what we're wearing."  
  
"She carries a dagger in one of her boots!" Liam exclaimed, trying not to shout. "And when we were on the train, before you came into the compartment…" he lowered his voice. "She said I was - /cute/!" With a tortured expression on his face, he concluded, "She's out to get me!"  
  
Odelia rolled her eyes visibly at the traumatized Liam. "Not to insult your looks, but considering your age and hers, I think she meant you were cute in the way she might think, say, a puppy is cute."  
  
"Platonically," Kira supplied, looking rather proud of herself. In response to Liam's wrinkled forehead, she expanded "In a non-romantic way."  
  
Liam was not to be dissuaded. "I don't care how she meant it. She carries a dagger and she thinks I'm cute. That combination just doesn't work for me." Odelia and Kira looked at each other with a mutual sigh of resignation. "Besides," Liam muttered irritably, "Nobody calls me cute and gets away with it."  
  
The rest of the dinner passed with no more unusual occurrences, and Liam and Kira ascended the stairs with seemingly unburdened hearts. "I'm just going to talk to Lupin for a second," Odelia explained; her housemates nodded in assent. Weaving deftly back through the crowds of students, Odelia found a path to the staff table. There she waited patiently for Lupin to finish talking to Professor Vector.  
  
"I'd say go for it; your changes in the curriculum have been creative and useful so far," Vector assured Lupin with a smile.  
  
"You don't think the school will object to changing such an old order?" Lupin pressed anxiously. Abstractedly he formed his mashed potatoes into a mountain range; he hadn't eaten much of his food.  
  
"With Dumbledore in charge?" Vector laughed. "No way. If anything, it'll be a breath of fresh air. Some of the lessons really need to be updated." Stifling a sigh, Odelia tapped one foot lightly against the stone floor. The further excitement of dinner had left her near exhaustion, and she had never been patient. Her eyes wandered over the other teachers at the staff table; most had retired, but McGonagall and Snape remained in earnest discussion over use of the Quidditch pitch. The latter looked sharply at Odelia.  
  
"Do you need something, Miss Delwin?" the Potions teacher enquired harshly. "Or are you perhaps here to refill my coffee?" With these last words, his expression reached new levels of menace.  
  
Odelia shook her head rapidly, causing a dull ache in her temples. "No sir," she professed, putting a hand on the table to stop herself from staggering. The room had become uncomfortably mobile, and through the spinning she could glimpse Fairfax Garland watching with his usual composure. "I just wanted to talk to Professor Lupin - he's my head of house, you know." The dizziness retreated, but Snape's suspicions did not.  
  
"Is he?" Snape sneered diffidently. "How… appropriate." The Slytherin Head's upper lip curled in an obvious smirk.  
  
Odelia inhaled sharply; after long experience with insults she could spot one a kilometer away, and she wasn't about to let even a Professor get away with such rudeness. "Appropriate? How so?" she queried nonchalantly. She knew well that she played a game far more dangerous than Quidditch.  
  
So did Snape. "Your House has, from what I know, a reputation for containing very," he paused for emphasis, "Unusual members." His tone was smooth ice, but his eyes flashed a message: eat that.  
  
Standing taller than ever, Odelia smiled proudly. "Thank you, sir. I take that as a compliment to our individuality." A view of Snape's disgruntled face made her smile sincere. One to Odelia, announced an imaginary referee, and zero to Snape.  
  
"Excuse the interruption," came Lupin's amused voice, "But I think Odelia needed to speak to me?" Grateful for the respite - for she knew how quickly the tables could turn - Odelia turned to her House Head. Lupin was wearing the expression that Odelia recognized as the one that adults used to mask laughter. "Could we continue our discussion later?" he asked Vector politely. The Arithmancy professor smiled her agreement and distanced herself.  
  
"Thank you," Odelia muttered. "Sorry for interrupting." Lupin waved his student's etiquette away. "The cootie-catcher - is it dangerous?" She clasped her hands together, realizing how cold they were. The whole room had, it seemed, been infused with a sudden chill.  
  
"I don't know," Professor Lupin replied thoughtfully, his head tilted in an appearance of mild perplexity. "I only had time to run one test on it, which scanned it to see if an outside force is controlling it, and the results were negative. I, uh, tried using it -" he allowed himself a smile. "It's still working, and quite accurately at that." Odelia would have given her stash of Fizzing Whizbees to know what the fortune-teller had informed Lupin, but she knew that it was a highly personal question. "I don't think there's reason to worry," the professor continued. "I'll tell you if I find anything."  
  
"Thank you," repeated Odelia. "I'm sorry to be a bother. I just--" she bit her lip, trying to find words to define her nameless fear. "I thought it would be wisest to keep a close watch on it. Good night," she concluded, and smiled her way out of the Great Hall.  
  
Ascending the marble staircase, which looked in the evening torchlight as if it were carved from ice, Odelia wondered that her fears were scarcely alleviated. Consciousness notwithstanding, the cootie-catcher didn't seem all that sinister. It was more of a curiosity than anything else, the sort of thing that her parents might keep on the coffee table as a conversation starter. Always somewhat of a worrywart, Odelia told herself firmly that she was, as usual, overreacting, and she had almost convinced herself by the time she reached the Omninihil common room.  
  
Kira and Liam were waiting for their absent friend, each seated on an opposite end of one of the teal couches. Odelia smiled in appreciated of this gesture of friendship; her friends had always been few and she was grateful for the simplest token of closeness.  
  
"Anything important?" Liam asked inquisitively as Odelia crouched by the hearth, extending pale hands toward the flames. Kira shushed Liam, gesticulating to a red-orange kitten curled sleeping on the couch. Once her hands were warm enough not to wake the animal, Odelia gently brushed her hand across the feline's fur.  
  
"What a darling," she murmured as the cat twitched one pink-tinged ear. "What's his name?"  
  
"Crimson," Kira replied quietly with a smile of indulgence at her pet. "A tribute to--"  
  
"The Crimson Fairy Book?" Odelia finished with a mischievous grin. Kira simply nodded with a semi-rueful smile.  
  
"What is it with you two and fairies?" questioned Liam. He frowned in bemusement, making his forehead crinkle comically. "They don't have much magic, and they're really vain and silly." Kira opened her mouth for an explanation, but scuttled off to the girls' dormitory instead. "Was it something I said?" Liam wondered, staring at the spot where Kira had been.  
  
"I think she's getting something," hypothesized Odelia, stroking Crimson's sleeping form. She sighed as the kitten rolled over. "I wish I could keep Aura in the castle." Before she could spend any more time lamenting the absence of her familiar, Kira returned.  
  
"Here," the redhead instructed, offering a thick orange book to Liam as she reclaimed her spot on the couch.  
  
"The Orange Fairy Book," Liam read aloud, running his thumb along the book's side. He lifted his eyes from the cover and looked expectantly at Kira.  
  
"Not the cover," Kira laughed in exasperation. "Read the book!" Odelia shed her boots to curl up on the couch - no shoes on the furniture - watching Liam's reaction.  
  
With a long-suffering sigh, Liam turned his eyes from the book to the ceiling. "As if the teachers' assignments weren't enough," he bewailed. Quickly resigning himself, he glanced speculatively at the volume and slipped his hand under the cover, separating it from the pages.  
  
Kira intervened before Liam could begin the process of literary immersion. "Wait a minute; we should get to bed if we're supposed to get up early tomorrow." A deceptively sweet smile graced her visage. "If you like, I'll wake you up extra early so you can read in the morning."  
  
"You're worse than my mother," Odelia observed with a mixture of admiration and annoyance. Kira looked back at Odelia wistfully; to the latter's surprise, Liam struggled up from the couch and bestowed a similarly regretful gaze.  
  
"I wish--" Kira began.  
  
Liam simultaneously muttered, "My mum--" The two exchanged a questioning glance. "You go first," Liam offered magnanimously.  
  
"Oh, I was just going to say," Kira blushed as she looked at her hands, "I haven't really had anyone to wake me up. My parents are great, I mean, but they're awfully busy."  
  
Odelia wasn't sure how to respond to this, but Liam saved her from the effort. "At least they care," he replied with quiet venom, biting his lower lip. "Mine are around the house all day, but all they do is play the guitar or write essays." The very blue of his eyes seemed to darken with anger. "They might as well be ghosts."  
  
Joining in the collective tirade, Odelia voiced her own grievances. "I wish mine paid less attention. Every minute they're lecturing me, or training me, or making me feel guilty, and they always compare me," her voice softened to a hiss, "with Odette." She plucked her parents' letter from her pocket and flourished it. "Just look at this. Odette says this, Odette told us that, Odette is our good little informant and tells us every little thing you did wrong, which is everything you do." With a jabbing motion she pointed her wand at the piece of parchment. "Incendio." The parchment flared orange, than turned char-black and disintegrated.   
  
Odelia enclosed herself in her bed-curtains later that night, hoping that her small sanctuary could shut out the strange, unpleasant feeling that had come over her since burning the letter. Curled on her side, she yanked the teal-and-salmon quilt up to her chin and struggled to clear her mind. Try as she might, her thoughts kept revolving like a lurid carousel: the cootie-catcher, Ignatius's sneer, Odette seated serenely like a queen at court, Aura's flashing eyes, the jam-covered schedules, floating feathers, shouts of "Expelliarmus!" Lupin looking tired, then the cootie-catcher again, everything tumbling together, pieces of an unsolved puzzle.  
  
--  
  
It was unusually foggy for summer, thick blue-gray miasma, swirling slowly as Odette and Odelia rode home on the former's Cleansweep 9. "I wonder why Mum and Dad didn't pick us up at the station," Odelia voiced for the fifth time.  
  
Odette only shrugged, unfazed as usual. "They probably got the date mixed up or something." She gave the broom a cue with her hand, causing it to swerve sharply. Odelia's stomach flip-flopped, but its owner only gritted her teeth. "We'll be home soon," continued Odette. "It's a good thing it's so foggy or the Muggles would've seen us for sure."  
  
"Mm-hm," Odelia agreed, straining her eyes for some sign of the house. "Hey, I think that's it. They've got all the lights on, it looks like." She couldn't restrain a mild screech as Odette brought the broomstick into a steep dive. "You could've warned me about that," she complained; Odette only laughed.  
  
Every light bulb, candle and magical illumination device in the house seemed to be activated, visible even through the mist. Stranger still, 37 Magpie Lane was emitting an oddly orange glow. Someone in the house had left the radio on, and the music sounded uncomfortably like... screams…  
  
Odette landed the broomstick on the lawn. "It's on fire, the house is on fire and Mum and Dad are inside!" Odelia yelled. "We've got to do something!"  
  
Odette nodded. "You're right. It's our duty." Without another word, she rushed toward the burning building with unnatural speed. Odelia tried to move after her sister but found herself unable to budge.  
  
"Odette, come back!" she begged, but Odette ran straight through the door of the house, into the flames. "No!" screamed Odelia.  
  
"Incendio!" replied a terrifyingly gleeful voice.  
  
"No!" Odelia protested.  
  
"Incendio!"  
  
"No!"  
  
"Incendio!"  
  
--  
  
Odelia's eyes snapped open. Gone was the burning house, the screams, Odette and the horrible voice; instead there was only Odelia's Hogwarts bed surrounded by the concealing teal curtains. "What a dream," Odelia muttered to herself, wishing more than ever that Aura was allowed in the castle. Adjusting her tear-stained pillow, Odelia positioned herself flat on her back, determined not to sleep for the rest of the night.  



End file.
